Free Youth Sports Tryout Evaluation Form

What is a tryout evaluation form?

It is the scoring sheet an evaluator carries during a tryout: one row per athlete, one column per skill being tested, and a place to write the sentence that explains the numbers. Leagues, clubs, travel programs and school teams all use one, and its job is narrow. It has to be fillable standing up, in weather, by somebody watching thirty children at once.

That is a different document from a player evaluation, which goes to one family partway through a season. This one exists to sort a group fairly, and then to be destroyed once it has.

A scoresheet built from your sport, not a generic grid

Most free tryout forms hand you five blank columns and leave the hard part to you. This one starts from the skills coaches in your sport actually score. Pick your sport in the panel on the left, click Load scoring criteria for this sport, and the columns rebuild themselves. Criteria are written for Archery, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Boxing, Cheerleading, Cricket, Cross Country, Curling, Cycling, Dance, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Field Hockey, Figure Skating, Football (Flag), Football (Tackle), Golf, Gymnastics, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Martial Arts, Pickleball, Powerlifting, Rowing, Rugby, Sailing, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Track & Field, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Water Polo and Wrestling; every other sport gets a solid all-purpose set that you can rename in place. Each of those links goes to a page for that sport, with the criteria written out, the positions scored separately, and the stations a session usually runs through.

Then change anything. Add a column for a position-specific skill, delete one that does not apply to your age group, set the number of rows to match your turnout, and download it as a PDF to clip to a board, or as Excel, so you can sort by total score on the drive home.

Running a tryout that produces useful scores

• Use more than one evaluator, and do not let them confer during the session. Two independent sheets that agree are evidence; one sheet is an opinion. Average them afterwards.
• Score against the age group, not against the room. A strong 12U group will make an average player look weak if you rank within the session. Decide what a 3 means for that age before you start.
• Put numbers on the athletes, not names. Pinnies with numbers reduce the pull of recognising a name, a sibling or a parent. Reconcile numbers to names after scoring is finished.
• Leave a cell blank rather than guessing. If the session never tested blocking, a blocking score is noise. Blank is honest and averages correctly, which is why the last column on the sheet is an average and not a total. A total quietly marks down the athlete whose blocking nobody got round to testing.
• Score the drill you designed for the skill. If "coachability" matters to you, build a moment that tests it: teach something new mid-session and watch who adjusts.
• Write one sentence per athlete in the notes column. In two weeks the numbers will all look the same and the sentence is what you will remember them by.

What the rating scale should mean

A 1–5 scale only works if everyone scoring is using the same definitions. The template writes them onto the sheet itself so every evaluator has them in front of them: 5 is well above the group, 3 is at level for the age group, 1 needs significant work. Agree those definitions out loud in the car park before the first whistle. That five-minute conversation does more for consistency than any form.

Resist the urge to add more granularity. A 1–10 scale sounds more precise and produces less consistent results, because the difference between a 6 and a 7 means something different to every coach holding a clipboard.

Handling the results like they concern children

Completed tryout sheets contain written judgments about named children. A few habits are worth keeping:

• Never share one athlete's scores with another family.
• Write notes you would be comfortable reading aloud to the athlete's parent, because one day you may have to.
• Decide in advance whether you will give feedback to athletes who are not selected, and say so before tryouts. Not after.
• Destroy the sheets once selections are final and any appeal window has closed.

Excel, Word or PDF

PDF is the one to print. It comes out landscape with the columns sized to be written in, and repeats the header row on every page. Excel gives you the same grid with filters turned on across the header row, which is what you want for totalling and sorting afterwards. Word is there if you want to fold the sheet into a larger tryout packet.

For how to staff a session, brief evaluators and tell families the result, see the tryouts and evaluation guide. After selections, the player evaluation form is the one you hand to a family mid-season, and the team roster sheet is the page that lives in the scorebook.

Playbook Logix provides customizable templates for informational and administrative use. They are not legal advice and will not meet the requirements of every organization, sport or jurisdiction. Review anything you intend to rely on with your own attorney or your insurance carrier, and check your league and state requirements.