Fencing Federation of Puerto Rico

Before the platform, the federation ran on paper. Athletes filled out forms by hand, and the federation copied that information onto a spreadsheet. Every new season or event meant re-entering the same information again, with nothing connecting one record to the next.

Puerto Rico's fencing federation licenses athletes, registers them for competition, and keeps the member records a national governing body is required to keep. I built the platform that does it, on WordPress: plugins where they fit, custom code where they did not.

Unlike JustIn, this was not my product to define. The federation had existing obligations, existing categories, and an existing way of working, and the system had to fit those rather than replace them. I was already involved with the federation's website when I saw how much of their process was manual and repeated. I proposed a self-service platform and built it end to end: architecture, plugin selection, and the custom-scripted dashboard and registration flow. What it covers: athlete login and signup, an athlete dashboard, a digital athlete ID, registration and licensing, and member records and management.

The federation already paid for managed WordPress hosting on GoDaddy, but there was no budget for paid plugins on top of it. Everything had to be built inside what that subscription already covered. That's why the dashboard and the registration flow are custom-scripted (PHP, MySQL), and why competition payments run through Forminator's free tier instead of a paid gateway add-on.

The platform is live, and athletes are actively registering on it. The most consistent feedback is about what it replaced: membership tied to one account, tournament registration without re-entering information, and a single dashboard for federation services. The digital athlete ID turned out to be the most requested piece after launch: proof, downloadable straight from an athlete's own account, that they are a currently registered competitive fencer in Puerto Rico.