An athlete profile is a sports CV that a coach reads in under a minute. The good ones answer the coach's questions in the order they ask them and prove every claim with footage or a result. This guide goes through a SportNet profile section by section and explains what to put in each one.
Photo and cover
Use a clear, recent photo of your face for your profile picture. Coaches use it to recognise you at trials and to match you to footage. Your cover image should be you in your sport, ideally mid-action, because it tells a visitor what you do before they read a word.
Both are set from Profile → Edit → Name, photo & details, alongside your name, username, bio and location.
Name, username and bio
Use your real name as it appears on team sheets and results. Your username is what people search for and what appears in your public link, so keep it close to your name. Usernames are 3 to 20 characters, lowercase letters, numbers and underscores only.
The bio is two or three sentences, not a life story. Say what you play, at what level, what you are looking for, and one thing that makes you distinctive. "Left-sided centre back, county level, looking for a semi-professional club in the North West from next season" beats a paragraph of adjectives.
The summary strip
At the top of the Profile view SportNet shows a strip with your sport, position, level, experience, height and club. This is what a coach scans first and it is what search filters use. Make sure your main sport is right (your first sport pick at sign-up becomes your main sport, and you can change it in Profile → Edit), that your position is specific, and that your level is honest.
Experience
List clubs, teams, academies and squads with dates, newest first. For each one, add the role or position and what you actually did there: minutes, appearances, whether you captained, which competition. Gaps are fine; unexplained gaps are not. If you were injured for a season, say so.
Achievements
Achievements are the results a coach can verify: titles, selections, representative honours, personal bests, awards. Give the competition, the year and, where possible, a link. Leave out anything you cannot back up. Three verifiable achievements are worth more than ten vague ones.
Performance stats
Athlete accounts get a Performance section for the numbers that matter in your sport: times, distances, tallies, percentages. Be exact and be honest. A coach who sees a time on your profile will expect to see it on the track. If a stat is from a specific season or competition, say which.
Physical attributes and health
Height, weight, dominant hand and foot help coaches picture you in a position. Health & Recovery covers recovery status, fitness metrics, training schedule and injury history. SportNet treats all of this as health data: the first time you add any of it, a consent sheet asks you to agree to SportNet storing it, and you can withdraw that permission at any time under Settings → Privacy → Health data. Withdrawing deletes the data.
Health & Recovery is set to Only me by default, so it is not shown to anyone else unless you change its visibility. Physical attributes can be shown to everyone, to connections and teams, or kept to yourself, using the small visibility chip on the section.
Goals
Say what you want next: a club, a scholarship, a trial, a move up a level, a move abroad. Coaches use this to decide whether you are a fit before they message you. Keep it to one or two concrete goals with a timeframe.
Contact and links
Add the places a coach can learn more: a club page, a results site, a highlights channel. Each section on your profile has its own visibility setting, so you can show contact details to connections and teams only while keeping the rest of your profile public.
Highlights are posts
On SportNet your highlights live in your Posts view. Post short clips with a caption that gives the date, opponent and competition, and tag the match, event or team on the details screen so the footage has context. Visitors watch them in the full-screen viewer. A few recent clips beat a long, old reel.
Let the AI assistant do the typing
If the blank sections are putting you off, the AI Assistant on the Profile tab can help. Describe your sporting life in your own words, typing or dictating, and it organises what you said into profile fields. Nothing is saved until you review the suggestions and accept them, and you can untick anything you do not want.
The assistant is powered by Claude, an AI model from Anthropic. The first time you open it, a permission sheet explains what is sent (your chat messages, a summary of your profile and the assistant's saved memories) and asks you to agree before anything is shared. You can withdraw that permission later under Settings → Privacy → AI features.
Watch the profile strength percentage
The percentage on the AI Assistant card shows how complete your profile is. Filling in more sections raises it, and a fuller profile is more likely to be surfaced to coaches and scouts. Aim to get it high before you start reaching out to clubs.
Decide who can see it
Under Settings → Privacy → Who can see → My Profile there are four options: Everyone (anyone signed in to SportNet), Connections & Coaches Only (your accepted connections plus verified coaches, scouts and teams), Connections Only, and Private. Anything below Everyone also hides you from search, Discover and scout results, so if you want to be found, choose Everyone or Connections & Coaches Only. Under-18 accounts start on Connections Only and can change this afterwards.
Athletes who are open to being approached should also fill in Settings → Scouting profile. It is opt-in and it is what puts you in front of verified coaches using Scout search.
Share it outside SportNet
- Public profile link. Accounts confirmed as 18 or over can turn on Allow public sharing under Settings → Privacy → Public profile link. Anyone with the link can see your name, photo, sport, position and follower count without an account. It only works while your profile is set to Everyone.
- PDF export. Settings → Export Profile as PDF creates a document with your details, experience, achievements and stats that you can email to a club.
- Coach access. With Settings → Privacy → Coach access turned on, coaches see a Download button on your profile that saves the same PDF. Turn it off and only you can export it.
Common mistakes
- 1A blurry, group or action-only profile photo. Coaches need to recognise your face.
- 2A bio full of adjectives and no facts. Position, level, location and goal are the facts.
- 3Inflated stats. They are checked against footage, and one mismatch undermines everything else.
- 4Experience with no dates or no detail. "Played for X" tells a coach nothing about your role.
- 5One long highlight reel from two seasons ago. Post short, recent clips with context instead.
- 6A private profile while actively looking for a club. You cannot be found if you are hidden from search.
- 7Ignoring message requests. A first message from a coach you are not connected to lands in Messages → Requests.
- 8Never updating. Refresh your profile after every season, injury, transfer or result.
A complete, honest, current profile does not get you scouted on its own, but it is what turns a scout's curiosity into a message. For the wider picture, read how to get scouted in any sport, and see everything SportNet offers athletes.
See how athletes use SportNet to get in front of coaches and scouts.
SportNet for athletes