Pioneer Pennant Process quick start

The first week, on two pages

Print this (Save as PDF works too) and keep it by the laptop. The full guides, with screenshots, are at pioneerpennant.com/process/help.

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Getting started

The first hour: an account, one athlete, and the five things that make everything else work.

1. Create the account from the Sign up page. A parent or guardian sets it up with a player under 18 and gives consent on the same form; the athlete's first name goes on the account.
2. You land on Account Home. The Getting started list is the plan for the first hour: every line is a real, checkable step, and each one links to the page that finishes it.
3. Open Edit profile and fill in About you first (state, class year, GPA, the majors she is considering). That one section is enough for a first fit report.
4. Pick a Top Ten on the Athlete page: the schools she would say yes to tomorrow, in order.
5. Run the Fit report, then log the first recruiting event (a camp, an email, a coach who watched).
6. On a paid plan, the trial's end date and the charge are on the Plan page. Cancel there in one click if it is not for you; nothing is charged.

Your athlete's profile

The eight sections that feed the fit report, the coach email, the social post, and the printed sheet, and why the student questions come first.

1. Open Account, then Athlete, then Edit the profile. Each section is its own form with its own Save, so fill in what you know and come back for the rest; the meter at the top counts what is filled in.
2. About you: name, city and state, class year, height, date of birth, GPA and test scores, up to three majors, and how challenging she wants the classroom. This section alone unlocks the fit report.
3. Where to find you: the phone and email coaches should use, high school and travel team with jersey numbers, film link, GameChanger link, and social handles.
4. Your coaches: club and high school coach names and contacts, plus hitting, fielding, catching, and pitching instructors. College coaches call them; ask each one before you list them.
5. What fits you: distance from home, how much cost matters, a maximum net price, public or private, faith-based, HBCU, campus size and setting, and the parts of the country she would play in.
6. In your own words: four short answers in real sentences. Coaches, essays, and emails all start here, and nobody can write this part but her.
7. Season statistics, Honors and activities, and Now softball (positions, bats and throws, hitting style, measurables, and the evidence question: which level of coach has actually talked to her).

The Top Ten

The schools she actually wants, in order, so the dream list and the data can argue it out.

1. Open Account, then Athlete, then the Top Ten tab. Type a school name and press Add; the name has to match a real program, and the box will offer the closest matches if it does not.
2. Order matters: number one is THE one. Move schools up and down as the list settles.
3. Add from a school's page too, with Add to Top Ten.
4. Run the fit report: the Top Ten is scored at the top, each with its rank out of 581 and whether it is on the recruiting log.

The fit report

Every D1 and D2 program scored against her profile, with the reason spelled out line by line.

1. Open Account, then Fit report. The first line says how many schools were scored and what level was used; UNSURE means there is no evidence yet, so rankings stay division-neutral.
2. Read the Top Ten block first: each of her schools with its rank and score, and Schools showing real interest, built from the recruiting log.
3. Each ranked school shows the why lines: major strength, academic fit (a REACH label means the admit rate is under 15 percent), distance, cost after aid, outcomes, and size and campus matches.
4. Filter the report by state, distance, cost, campus, or D1 offense without changing the scores: ranks stay honest, the list just gets shorter.
5. A high score is not an offer. It is a reason to email that coach this week.

The recruiting log

Every camp, email, call, visit, piece of feedback, and offer, school by school, so traction is a record and not a feeling.

1. Open Account, then Athlete, then the Recruiting log tab, or use Log activity on any school's page.
2. Pick the school, the event type (camp, email sent, call or text with a coach, coach gave feedback, campus visit, offer), the date, and a note that a future you will understand: "HC watched game 2" beats "good weekend".
3. One camp, five coaching staffs: list the other schools in More schools at the same event, one per line, and every one gets the entry.
4. The dashboard above the form sums it up: camps attended, emails sent, coaches who watched, replies, offers. The fit report reads the same log for Schools showing real interest.
5. Made a mistake? Fix or remove an entry is under the dashboard. An accidental offer is worth ten points on the report, so fix it.

Draft an email to a coach

An outline with her facts filled in and the words that matter left for her, because coaches can tell a template from a person.

1. Open Account, then Coach email, or start from a school's page. Pick the school and the kind of email: introduce yourself, share your schedule, ask about camps, thank a coach, or follow up.
2. Read the rules line first. D1 coaches cannot reply before September 1 of junior year, so a pre-window email asks for nothing and expects no answer; D2 and D3 can write back any time. The scaffold changes to match.
3. Build my scaffold. Each paragraph says what it should do, the facts from the profile are already in place, and everything marked WRITE THIS YOURSELF has to come from her.
4. Use the raw material box for the "why this school" paragraph: the major, the campus, something true about the program. That is the paragraph coaches actually read.
5. Send it from her own email, then press I sent it to log it. The log and the fit report both update.

The profile sheet

The one-page sheet coaches expect at a camp: headshot, measurables, stats, academics, coaches, schedule, socials, and a code that opens her GameChanger.

1. Open Account, then Profile sheet. The page shows exactly what will print and lists anything still empty at the top.
2. Add the two images on the Athlete page's Photos tab: a clear headshot and the team logo (travel or high school).
3. Keep the Upcoming schedule current on the Athlete page; it prints in its own column and tells a coach where to go watch.
4. Press Print this sheet. In the print dialog choose Save as PDF to keep a copy. It is built to land on one page.
5. Bring printed copies to camps and attach the PDF to emails that ask a coach to come watch.

The rule this whole tool lives by: go where you are going to play, not as high as you can go.