USATF Membership, Age Verification, and Club Affiliation
USA Track & Field (USATF) Memberships
As of Cross Country 2020, Alpha Crush no longer does the administration of memberships on behalf of the athletes.
It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to purchase and manage memberships for their athlete(s).
USATF Membership page.
USATF Youth membership is $30 per calendar year (plus transaction fee).
Age-verification is a separate process from purchasing a membership.
USATF Connect
USATF Connect is the updated membership portal, introduced in early 2020.
For any questions or problems with USATF Connect, send an email to the national office staff at membership@usatf.org.
"How To" videos - how to use USATF Connect
In general, the parent/guardian creates an account on USATF Connect (this step is free)
Then, each athlete is added to the account via the "Add New Member" button. Under this option, you can attach an existing memberships (i.e. athlete) to your account for management purposes.
If your athlete had a membership in the old USATF system, then there is a "Recover Account from Previous System" on the login page. You enter the membership number, password on the previous account, and the current email you wish to associate with this athlete.
You should set the Club Affiliation by attaching your membership to Alpha Crush Running Club, #45-0690.
If you do not set the Club Affiliation...
The membership will not appear in the download for our club.
And, the synchronization between USATF Connect and Athletic.net (used for meet entry) will not happen and the athlete can't be selected for meet entry.
You need to set the Club Affiliation when the membership is created.
Here is how to initiate a transfer if you need to change the Club Affiliation for an existing membership:
When viewing the member's profile in USATF Connect, choose Memberships to view the membership information.
Under the Actions menu there is a "Transfers" option.
From there, use "Start Transfer" to begin the process.
General Notes - Age Verification Documents
Age verification is required if the athlete wishes to compete in certain USATF Junior Olympics events for track and field or cross country (see list below.)
Age verification is only done for new USA Track & Field (USATF) memberships.
Renewals do not need to be age verified again. Once athlete is age verified, always age verified.
Age verification is a manual process done by the National office. When a valid document is uploaded, the status is set to Pending until processing is complete.
Valid forms for use in age verification for the athlete (only one of the following is needed):
Birth certificate
Passport
Certified baptismal record
Driver's license or learner's permit
U.S. Government ID
Age verification documents uploaded by the parent/guardian via USATF Connect
Video: Add Athlete Verification Documents, for example "Date of Birth Verification" and "Citizenship Verification".
As described on the USATF website page Date of Birth Verification, accepted age verification documents include copy of birth certificate, passport, certified baptismal record, driver’s license, or U.S. government identification.
Note there is a size limitation of 20MB / 20,000KB. Sometimes scanned PDF images or photos can be quite large, so mind the size of the document you upload.
Also, the document must be legible enough for the National office to read the athlete's name and confirm the date of birth. Sometimes photos of documents do not have enough resolution for the data to be visible when zoomed in. Be sure the document is legible.
Alpha Crush does not age verify the athletes.
Meets that require age verification
The following USATF "competitive season" meets require an age-verified USATF membership:
Track (June / July)
USATF Georgia Association Area A/B/C Junior Olympic Track & Field Preliminary Meets
USATF Georgia Association Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships
USATF Region 4 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships
USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships
Cross Country (November / December)
USATF Georgia Association Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships
USATF Region 4 Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships
USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships
Club Affiliation Update Request
Here is how to initiate a transfer if you need to change the Club Affiliation for an existing membership:
When viewing the member's profile in USATF Connect, choose Memberships to view the membership information.
Under the Actions menu there is a "Transfers" option.
From there, use "Start Transfer" to begin the process.
Per "Regulation 4 - Representation" of the USATF Governance Handbook ... ", to transfer representation from one club/organization to another, an athlete must not have competed for the first club in sanctioned competition for the previous ninety (90) days regardless of residency." There are some exceptions noted in the regulation.