Question 1

What ages does FlagPlay serve?

Accepted Answer

Girls in grades 7–12. The platform is designed end-to-end for middle- and high-school athletes on the road to a college roster spot — no rec leagues, no adult tiers, no recruiting noise from outside the pipeline. (FlagPlay-hosted combines open to grades 5–12.)

Question 2

How is FlagPlay different from Hudl?

Accepted Answer

Three big differences. (1) Free profile — Hudl charges $299/yr per individual athlete on top of your school's subscription; ours is free, you pay only for the inbox + social features (Athlete Pro $9.99/mo). (2) Real "who viewed me" — Hudl's view tracking is paywalled and opaque; we show you the coach's name, school, and timestamp for every view, free. (3) Sport-native — Hudl is a generic video tool; we are built for girls' flag football end-to-end (NCAA Emerging Sport, Olympic LA 2028, 23+ states sanctioned). Public view + like counts on highlights, an in-product trending feed, and athlete-to-athlete follows are all FlagPlay-only.

Question 3

How does FlagPlay connect to the Olympic / national-team pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Flag football debuts at LA 2028 as a 5-on-5 game with six men's and six women's teams of ten players each. USA Football is the U.S. national federation that selects and runs the U17, U20, and senior national-team programs. FlagPlay doesn't pick athletes for the Olympic team — what we do is keep your hardware-verified combine stats and game film in one place so when USA Football scouts open a profile, the numbers are intact and the reels are current. See the Resources page for the full IOC / IFAF / USA Football references.

Question 4

Can HS / college flag athletes earn NIL?

Accepted Answer

College: NCAA NIL rules apply once an athlete enrolls at a member institution — including Emerging-Sport rosters. NAIA and NJCAA athletes have their own NIL policies. High school: NIL is state-by-state — most state HSAAs that have weighed in now allow NIL with conditions (no team-logo use, no booster pay-for-play). FlagPlay does not broker NIL deals; we point athletes and parents to the NFHS NIL tracker and each state HSAA rulebook so decisions stay informed and eligibility stays intact.

Question 5

What does Free unlock — and what do I pay for?

Accepted Answer

Free gets you a public profile (1 photo, 1 video) that coaches can find and view, PLUS the full "who viewed your profile" feed and public view/like counts on your reel. Paid tiers (Athlete Pro from $9.99/mo or $79/yr) unlock unlimited photos + videos, hardware-verified stats imports, athlete-to-athlete follows, and — most importantly — the ability to RECEIVE direct DMs from college coaches. Free makes you discoverable and shows you who is watching; the paid tier opens the inbox and the social graph. The NextPlay AI reel editor is a separate $10/mo add-on (or $99/yr) that stacks on any tier.

Question 6

Can I see exactly which coaches viewed my profile?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every verified college coach who opens your profile shows up on your dashboard with their name, school, school logo, and a timestamp. The "Who viewed you" widget is on /dashboard and is free for every athlete. Hudl paywalls this and only shows aggregate counts; we believe the athlete deserves to know who is paying attention. You also get a push notification the first time each day a new coach lands on your profile (toggle in /dashboard/notifications).

Question 7

How do I make my profile visible to college coaches?

Accepted Answer

Open your profile editor (Dashboard → Profile) and turn on "Public recruiting profile." Add a position, grad year, and at least one highlight reel — complete profiles surface far higher in coach search than sparse ones.

Question 8

Do reels show view + like counts like TikTok or Instagram?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every public reel shows a view count and like count right next to the duration. Views are real play-events (not page loads) deduped to one per viewer per day; anonymous viewers count too. Signed-in viewers can like; anonymous viewers see a "Sign in to like" prompt. This is the social proof Hudl never built — coaches see at a glance which reels are getting eyeballs.

Question 9

Can I follow other athletes?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with both sides on a paid tier (Athlete Pro / Duo / Family / Club). Use it to track athletes in your position group, watch your competition's new reels drop, and see who is racking up offers. When someone follows you, you get a notification. Follows are private to the follow graph — there is no public follower wall and no "for you" algorithm. Both-sides-paid keeps the graph high-signal.

Question 10

What is the trending feed on the dashboard?

Accepted Answer

A real-time view-velocity feed: athletes whose profile-view count over the last 7 days exceeded their count over the prior 7, ranked by absolute view delta. It surfaces who is climbing the recruiting boards in girls' flag football right now, across the whole platform — useful for athletes to benchmark and for coaches to discover hot prospects early. It updates live as views land.

Question 11

How do combine results get verified?

Accepted Answer

Results captured on VALD timing/force hardware at a FlagPlay combine are auto-verified and carry a Platinum / Gold / Silver provenance badge. You can also add self-reported results yourself — those show as unverified until a staff member or a verified combine confirms them.

Question 12

What does the $10/mo NextPlay add-on unlock?

Accepted Answer

Unlimited video uploads plus the full AI reel editor in NextPlay: auto-clip the best plays, jersey-number detection, voiceover, and multiple reel formats (Recruiting 5min, Social Vertical 60s, Send-Grandma 30s, Skill-Specific 90s). It stacks on top of any FlagPlay tier. Annual option: $99/yr. One bill via Stripe — the same checkout as the rest of your FlagPlay subscription. Cancel anytime from /dashboard/billing without cancelling FlagPlay itself.

Question 13

How do I sign in to NextPlay — is it a separate account?

Accepted Answer

No separate account. Same FlagPlay email and password. Once you add NextPlay to your billing, an "Open NextPlay" tile appears on your FlagPlay dashboard — clicking it mints a short-lived signed handoff and lands you on NextPlay already signed in. The first click creates the matching NextPlay user under the hood; every click after that is instant.

Question 14

My Duo / Family / Club plan — does NextPlay know how many athletes I have?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The moment you upgrade to Duo (2 athletes), Family (4), or Club (unlimited) on FlagPlay, NextPlay automatically grants the matching number of athlete slots. Buy the plan on FlagPlay, switch to NextPlay, add the kids — done. The cross-product sync runs the second your Stripe webhook fires.

Question 15

Where do reels I make in NextPlay show up?

Accepted Answer

Every reel you publish in NextPlay auto-syncs back to your FlagPlay athlete profile within seconds. You'll see it on your public profile, in /dashboard/reels, and in the reel strip on your athlete page — with a "NextPlay" badge so you know where it came from. No copy-paste, no re-upload. Athletes you originally created in FlagPlay are synced into NextPlay on first sign-in too, so you don't re-enter rosters.

Question 16

Why do coaches pay too?

Accepted Answer

Coach Free is the .edu-verified teaser tier — sign up with your school address and browse the catalog (photo, first name, state, position, class for every athlete). The actual recruiting workflow — full profiles, highlight reels, GPA + school + contact, unlimited recruiting outreach plus the 8-athlete bulk composer, saved searches with a weekly digest, the Kanban board, anti-bias mode, side-by-side compare, and analytics — is Coach Pro ($29.99/mo or $249/yr; multi-staff Coach Program $99/mo). That keeps the platform sustainable without selling parent contact info or charging per-intro fees.

Question 17

How much does FlagPlay cost for college coaches?

Accepted Answer

Coach Free is the teaser tier — sign up with your .edu to browse the catalog (photo + first name + state + position + class for every athlete). The full recruiting workflow — full profiles, highlight reels, GPA + school + contact, recruiting outreach, saved searches, the Kanban board, anti-bias mode, and analytics — unlocks at Coach Pro ($29.99/mo or $249/yr; roughly 30% off on annual). Coach Program ($99/mo or $899/yr, up to 5 staff seats) is for whole programs. No per-athlete unlock fees. Cancel anytime.

Question 18

How do I verify my coaching account?

Accepted Answer

Sign up at /signup/coach with your .edu address. We send a magic-link email to confirm the address, then automatically check your name against your program's athletics staff directory. Most coaches clear both signals and are live within the hour — full database access and DMs unlock the moment verification completes. Programs without a matching .edu (some NJCAA and travel staff) route to a manual staff-approval queue, where we confirm your role before granting access.

Question 19

My program is D-II / D-III / NAIA / NJCAA — is the account really free?

Accepted Answer

Browsing is free, but the full database isn't. Signing up with a verified .edu gives you a free Coach Free seat: browse the catalog teaser (photo + first name + state + position + class) and filter it. To see full profiles, highlight reels, GPA + school + contact, and to send recruiting messages, you upgrade to Coach Pro ($29.99/mo or $249/yr) after verification — the same price at every division. There are no per-athlete unlock fees and you can cancel anytime.

Question 20

How does anti-bias coach mode work?

Accepted Answer

Flip the toggle in your directory view. Athlete name and school are server-side redacted (not a CSS hack) until you commit a thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or film-request rating. Once you commit, identity unlocks for that athlete and the rating is logged for audit — so first-impression bias can't steer recruiting before the numbers do.

Question 21

How does contact with athletes under 18 work?

Accepted Answer

Every coach is verified before they get database access, and every message to a player under 18 lands in that player's guardian queue first. The guardian approves or denies before the athlete ever sees the message. Identity verified, school verified, a gate in front of every conversation — and the athlete or guardian can revoke any coach's DM access in one click, with the action captured in the audit log.

Question 22

Can coaches export search results or save filters?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every search can be saved (a weekly digest emails you new athletes that match) and both your search results and Kanban recruiting board export to CSV. The export never includes athlete contact info; outreach stays in-platform behind the guardian gate.

Question 23

My program isn't in the database — what do I do?

Accepted Answer

Use the coach support form (or email vonzelle@vzttechconsulting.com) with your school name and division. We add programs within one business day of the request, then your .edu domain can match against it for verification.

Question 24

Can I cancel or change my plan without leaving the app?

Accepted Answer

Yes. /dashboard/billing has direct buttons for Cancel (cancel at period end — you keep access until your renewal date, and your profile drops to Free automatically while your reels stay live), Reactivate (undo a pending cancel), and Change plan (switch Duo ↔ Family ↔ Club with automatic proration). No retention calls. The Stripe Customer Portal is still linked as a fallback for invoice downloads and payment-method updates.

Question 25

What is your refund policy?

Accepted Answer

Subscriptions: cancel anytime and you keep access through the end of the period you already paid for — we don't prorate a refund for the unused part of a month or year. Event registrations (combines and showcases) are final and non-refundable once purchased. Full details are on the Refunds page.

Question 26

Do you have family plans for multiple athletes?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Duo ($16.99/mo / $149/yr) covers 2 athletes on one account, Family ($24.99/mo / $199/yr) covers up to 4 with a shared parent dashboard, and Club ($49.99/mo / $399/yr) is unlimited athletes for clubs, travel teams, and large families. You manage every athlete from one login and one bill, and NextPlay grants the matching number of slots automatically.

Question 27

My highlight reel is stuck "Encoding" — what do I do?

Accepted Answer

Encoding usually finishes within a few minutes. If a reel sits longer than about 15 minutes, contact support with the athlete name and we'll re-check the upload on our side.

Question 28

I need to fix something on my profile that I can't edit myself

Accepted Answer

Use the support form with the athlete name and what needs changing. Most profile fixes are handled within one business day.

Frequently asked questions

Athletes & Parents

College Coaches

Platform & Billing