App aims to innovate recruiting for student-athletes from rural communities

WINDOW ROCK

The new downloadable app, Signing Day Sports, is designed to help high school athletes get seen by college scouts and coaches. It has been successful after being launched nearly a year ago.

The app is designed to be managed by the individual student and their high school. The student can also manage it on their own if need be. The student is able to upload stats, videos, practice interviews and has the ability to connect with participating colleges or universities. High schools can help by subscribing to the app and assisting by giving full rosters and helping to maintain the student’s stats.

As of now the app covers football and baseball athletes across the United States, but this Friday a beta for softball will be released followed by its full release on Oct. 15, 2021.

Signing Day Sports CEO John Dorsey said it has become his passion to help student-athletes get the recognition they deserve, especially if they are aiming to go to college.

Dorsey and many others within his company are former athletes who understand how difficult it is getting recruited by a college or university, especially when athletes are from small schools in rural areas as was Dorsey from his small hometown in Washington state.

He also hopes to keep athletes and their families safe from scammers who would take advantage of inexperienced student-athletes attempting to get in contact with potential colleges.

Scammers could cheat families out of hundreds of dollars by promising to get them in contact with scouts, but with Signing Day Sports they would pay only a monthly or annual fee and athletes could cancel anytime.

“The current process is very flawed and manipulative toward parents and kids and they almost prey on them because they’re vulnerable and the kids are desperate to play athletics,” Dorsey said.

“Signing Day disrupts that whole model and we created a platform very similar to LinkedIn on the athlete’s side and similar to Zillow on the coach’s and university’s side.

“On the coaches’ side it allows them to search specifically for what kid they would want for their program. On the kids’ side it allows them to get all of their profiles built with LinkedIn videos, all of their verified data, and it gets them in front of hundreds of schools – not just one or two.”

With Signing Day Sports, Dorsey believes it will be easier for college recruiters to review stats of potential players for their programs as well as helping student athletes become responsible in maintaining their app’s profile and keeping their stats up to date.

Exposure through app

Dorsey said the app over 40,000 athletes in its system now and at least 200 different colleges and universities are subscribed to the app. A college coach told Dorsey that the app has helped him narrow his search from 20 candidates to eight.

During the past year, many high school coaches from different sports feared that their athletes wouldn’t get the exposure they deserve and would miss their chance at going to college on sports scholarships because of lockdowns and restrictions put into place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likewise, many colleges and universities were forced to cut their budgets because of COVID-19, making it difficult for coaches to travel and see potential recruits. With the app, college coaches were able to find some potential recruits and get in contact with them.

The head director for the softball recruitment platform of the app is U.S. Olympian Paige Halstead. Halstead is a graduate from UCLA and was a catcher for the UCLA softball team. She went on to become a professional athlete for Athlete Unlimited and later threw in a three-year stint with Team USA, helping them qualify for the 2021 Olympics.

“I went through the entire recruiting process myself,” Halstead said. “We had to organize emails and call college coaches.

“So my experience with college recruitment was chaotic and confusing because I didn’t know who to reach out to and I didn’t know what I should send to them and things like that.

“That’s the reason why I joined Singing Day Sports, to make sure that girls who lived in different areas have that same exposure as girls that are on big name travel ball teams.”

Sports have been a part of Halsteed’s life for as long as she could remember. She grew up playing with her two older brothers before her passion for sports helped her get to college, and then into the professional league.

Now she wants to help other young athletes like herself who love sports but may not have the same exposure as others. She believes that Signing Day Sports will make things easier for athletes to play in high-level schools.

“Having a base company like this is going to be absolutely unreal and I think that girls can activate this affordable digital platform that provides much more visibility on a much larger scale than ever before,” she said. “I think it’s going to change the whole recruiting world especially for softball.”

The softball app will be available by next month, and then soccer will be launched in November.

Dorsey said by the first quarter of next year they will be covering football, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, hockey and esports.

Dorsey’s team is discussing track and field. The team will add more potential sports in the future. There are hopes that Signing Day Sports will be used internationally, but as of now they are focusing on the continental United States.

“Our app is so inexpensive but so effective that if I can help just one kid in a small town or small program then our job is done,” Dorsey said, “I know we’re helping many more than that, but we’d be very happy if we just helped one.”

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