diff --git a/app/app.py b/app/app.py
index 24ace0e..79147c9 100644
--- a/app/app.py
+++ b/app/app.py
@@ -55,7 +55,11 @@ def create_app():
     app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = os.getenv('SECRET_KEY')
     if not app.config['SECRET_KEY']:
         raise RuntimeError('SECRET_KEY environment variable must be set for security')
-    app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = os.getenv('DATABASE_URL', 'sqlite:///team_tryouts.db')
+    app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = os.getenv('DATABASE_URL')
+    if not app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI']:
+        raise RuntimeError(
+            'DATABASE_URL environment variable must be set to a PostgreSQL connection string'
+        )
     app.config['SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS'] = False
     app.config['WTF_CSRF_ENABLED'] = True
 
diff --git a/app/models/user_model/user.py b/app/models/user_model/user.py
index 4a50676..9f61f6b 100644
--- a/app/models/user_model/user.py
+++ b/app/models/user_model/user.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ class User(UserMixin, db.Model):
     # --- columns -----------------------------------------------------------
     id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
     username = db.Column(db.String(80), unique=True, nullable=False)
-    password_hash = db.Column(db.String(128), nullable=False)
+    password_hash = db.Column(db.String(256), nullable=False)
     role = db.Column(db.String(20), nullable=False, default='player')  # polymorphic discriminator
     full_name = db.Column(db.String(100), nullable=False)
     email = db.Column(db.String(120), unique=True, nullable=False)
diff --git a/instance/team_tryouts.db b/instance/team_tryouts.db
deleted file mode 100644
index 22c1556..0000000
Binary files a/instance/team_tryouts.db and /dev/null differ