Player Emergency Contact and Medical Info: What to Collect

A player goes down at practice. Someone needs to call home, and you need to know whether they have asthma, a peanut allergy or a heart condition you were never told about. The registration form with that information is in a parent’s inbox, a league office or a binder in your trunk.

Most teams collect some of this. Few have it at the field. This guide covers what to ask every player for, who should be able to see it, and how to get it to the sideline. It’s written for youth coaches and team managers first, and the same list works for an adult rec team with a few changes, covered at the end.

The emergency contact form: what to collect

Keep the form short enough that families actually fill it in. For each player, you need:

• Player’s full name and date of birth. Paramedics and hospitals ask for both.
• Two emergency contacts. Name, relationship to the player and a mobile number for each. Two matters: the first contact is often the parent sitting in the stands or stuck at work with their phone off.
• Which contact to call first. For divorced or blended families, ask who should be called and whether anyone should not be contacted.
• Doctor and insurance details, if your league requires them. Many teams leave these on the league’s registration form instead of copying them.

For adult players, “emergency contact” usually means a partner, roommate or family member. Ask anyway. Adult rec players get hurt too, and teammates often know each other only by first name and jersey number.

The medical notes: what coaches actually need to know

You don’t need a player’s full medical history. You need what changes how you’d react in the first ten minutes of an emergency. Ask about:

• Allergies and how severe they are. Food, insect stings and medication. Ask whether the player carries an epinephrine auto-injector and where it’s kept during games, such as in their bag or with a parent.
• Asthma, and whether they bring an inhaler to practice.
• Conditions that can cause a sudden emergency. Diabetes, seizure disorders and heart conditions.
• Recent concussions or injuries that affect what they can do.
• Medications that matter in an emergency. Skip everyday prescriptions that don’t affect play.
• Anything else the family wants the coach to know. Leave a free-text line. Parents often know what matters better than any checklist.

Keep each note short and practical: “Severe peanut allergy, EpiPen in the front pocket of her bag” is more useful at the field than a paragraph.

Building a team allergy list

For snacks, team parties and travel, it helps to know which players have food allergies without opening every player’s file. Agree with families on what goes on a shared allergy list before you make one. “No nuts in team snacks” can go to every parent without naming the child. A list of which players have which condition shouldn’t.

Who should see it

Medical and emergency information should go to the smallest group that needs it to keep the player safe.

Who	Should see it?
Head coach and team manager	Yes. They’re responsible at practices and games.
Assistant coaches who run practices without the head coach	Yes
The player and their parents or guardians	Yes, so they can keep it up to date
Other players and their parents	No
Team group chats and email threads	No

A few habits keep it that way:

• Don’t post it in the team chat. Group chats are full of parents, are hard to edit after the fact, and stay on everyone’s phone after the season.
• Don’t print a roster with medical notes and leave it in the dugout. If you need paper, keep one copy and keep it with you.
• Ask families to update it. Allergies get diagnosed mid-season, and phone numbers change.
• Clear it at the end of the season if your league doesn’t need you to keep it.

Volunteer coaches are usually not covered by health privacy laws like HIPAA, which apply to healthcare providers and insurers. That doesn’t make the information less sensitive. Treat it the way you’d want your own child’s information treated, and follow any rules your league, school or club sets.

Getting it to the field

The best form in the world doesn’t help if it’s at home when a player gets hurt. Whatever system you use, check that:

1. It’s on the coach’s phone, not in a binder or a laptop at home.
2. Phone numbers can be called with one tap. You won’t want to retype a number under pressure.
3. You can see who’s actually there today. At a game, you need contacts for the 12 players who showed up, not a 20-name spreadsheet.
4. More than one adult has it. If the head coach is the one who’s hurt, or is driving a player to the hospital, someone else needs the list.

Pair it with a basic emergency plan: who calls 911, who stays with the player, who meets the ambulance at the entrance, and the address of every field you play at. Our injury and safety guide covers first aid, incident reports and return to play.

How BenchApp handles it

BenchApp added Emergency Contacts and Medical Notes in October 2026. Both are free for every team.

• Each player can add up to two emergency contacts, each with a name, relationship and phone number, plus medical notes for allergies or medical conditions. Players fill these in from their own profile. Managers can add or fix them for any player when editing that player on the roster.
• Only the player, their linked guardians and the team’s managers can see them. Teammates never do.
• Every game and practice has an Emergency Contacts button for managers. It lists the players going to that event and their contacts, with tap-to-call phone numbers. Medical notes stay on each player’s profile.

Because parents fill in their own child’s details, the information stays current without the coach chasing paper forms. And because the game-day list only shows who’s coming, you aren’t scrolling past players who stayed home.

For adult rec teams

The same list applies, with less to collect. Ask every player for one or two emergency contacts and any allergies or conditions a teammate would need to know about in an emergency, such as diabetes, a severe allergy or a heart condition. Make it optional and explain why you’re asking. Most adults are happy to share it when they know only the captain will see it.

Quick checklist

• Two emergency contacts per player, with relationship and mobile number
• Allergies, with severity and where the auto-injector is
• Asthma, diabetes, seizures, heart conditions and recent concussions
• A free-text line for anything else
• Visible to coaches, managers, the player and their guardians, and nobody else
• On the coach’s phone at every game and practice, for the players who are there
• Updated mid-season and cleared at the end

Set it up before the first practice, and you’ll never have to look for it when it matters.