Case Study - Where young athletes shine and scouts discover talent

Overview

Youth sports is a massive ecosystem, yet talented young athletes often struggle to get noticed beyond their local leagues. Parents record games on their phones, coaches track development in spreadsheets, and scouts spend countless hours traveling to find prospects.

Children Champions brings these worlds together on a single platform. Athletes and parents upload performance videos, coaches add professional metrics and assessments, and scouts can search across the entire network to find exactly the talent they're seeking.

The platform needed to balance the social engagement that keeps young users excited with the professional features that make it valuable to coaches and scouts—all while maintaining strict safety standards for a platform focused on minors.

What we did

• React Native Mobile Apps
• Video Processing Pipeline
• Coach & Scout Dashboard
• Search & Discovery Engine

The advanced filtering in our scout search has been transformative. Scouts can find a 14-year-old left-footed midfielder in Sofia with specific technical ratings—that precision didn't exist before.

Video-first architecture

Video is the core of the platform, so we built robust infrastructure to handle high volumes of uploads, transcoding, and streaming. Athletes can record directly in the app or upload existing footage, with automatic optimization for different device capabilities and network conditions.

We implemented smart video tagging that suggests relevant sports, positions, and skills based on content analysis. This metadata powers the discovery experience, helping great performances get seen by the right audiences.

The feed algorithm balances engagement signals with fairness, ensuring talented athletes get exposure regardless of their existing following. We specifically designed against viral dynamics that could create unhealthy pressure for young users.

Performance analytics

Coaches have a dedicated dashboard where they can review athlete videos and add professional assessments. The metrics system is sport-specific—a soccer coach adds different measurements than a basketball coach—with standardized scoring that enables meaningful comparisons.

Over time, athletes build comprehensive performance profiles showing their development trajectory. These profiles become powerful recruiting tools, giving scouts verified data beyond highlight reels.

The scout search functionality supports complex queries combining location, sport, position, age, physical attributes, and performance metrics. Results can be saved as watch lists for ongoing monitoring.

Safety and privacy

Given the focus on minors, safety was paramount throughout development. All accounts require parental verification, content moderation combines AI screening with human review, and privacy controls let families manage exactly who can see their athlete's content.

We implemented tiered visibility levels: public highlights, coach-only detailed footage, and scout-access gated content. Communication features are carefully designed to prevent direct messaging between adults and minors without parental oversight.

Results

Children Champions has created a thriving community of young athletes, supportive parents, dedicated coaches, and professional scouts. The platform has facilitated numerous talent discoveries, with athletes receiving opportunities at academies and development programs they would never have accessed through traditional channels.