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YouTube For High-School Jocks
theodp writes "Used to be college scouts had to put in lots of miles to find a hick from French Lick. But thanks to the Internet, athletic recruiters no longer have to traipse out to actual games to find talent. The players are coming to them via links to video streamed from sports-info websites like Student-Athlete Showcase, iPlayers, and GetMyNameOut. The home-video-meets-NFL-Films highlight reels — which parents commission for a fee ranging from $300 to $5,000 — have become a standard component of college applications for jocks (as well as for aspiring actors, dancers, and musicians). One sales pitch: 'Are you willing to risk your child's potential scholarship with a homemade videotape? Remember, first impressions last forever!'"
I wonder if someone could clear it up for someone who isn't an American, what's a 'jock'?
A jock is an athlete, and therefore the bane of every Slashdotter.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Its good to see some original business models coming out. I have grown tired of so much reliance on ad models. Perhaps this Internet thing is here to stay.
I can see that this would be extremely handy in the US, given the sheer size of the country. Parents should take advantage of any method to get their kid noticed. I do wonder however whether some ripoff sites will start charging nieve parents large fees for poorly made or badly placed video's.
What kind of bullshit is this: "have become a standard component of college applications for jocks?" I work in a school in a major metropolitan area with many great sports players. I guarantee you that if this was a "standard component" of college applications in any way I would have heard of it before. Why must you stretch the truth? No where near a majority of "jocks" have even heard of this.
You know, I can't help but feel that there's a lot of anger in this post. I was picked on in high school too, but you know what? Having moved on, I no longer harbor anger or resentment towards people who may resemble, by their extracurricular activities, people who picked on me in high school. Above all, I don't resort to the kind of name-calling that reminds one of all too many calls of "NEEEEERRRRRRRRDDDDDDD".
I worked for a pro sports team and have seen more hours of game film than most slashdotters have sci-fi. Coaches and recruiters look at film and if it looks good, they go and watch them play in person or have them come in for a practice. Film has been used for years in recruiting but it has never been and is not currently the sole decider. Any recruiter worth his salt will not never try and recruit someone based solely on film. Do you really think that don't know that people will pick out the best film or even have it doctored?
A little side rant. Whats with this idea that you couldn't have been an academic in high school while playing sports? A significant number of the 10% of my class played sports, usually more than one. Very few on the other end of the academic scale did anything extracurricular. No they didn't get in the top 10% by taking bullshit classes either as our harder (advanced and AP) classes were weighted 5.0 on 4.0 scale.
Gone!
Where's the site for aspiring p0rn stars?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
'nuff said.
Oh shut up. You're making us all look bad, especially by being modded up.
Yeah, you had a bad experience in the AV club in high school, get over it. Go to your local park and find an ad-hoc football game, talk to the guys, then tell me they're all arrogant anti-intellectuals. Hell, some of the smartest people I know, in the most cutting-edge tech companies, have basketball and soccer teams organized.
Stereotypes are bad, mmmkay?
Comment of the year