It's been a big few days for beRecruited. Most importantly, we passed our 3,000,000th recruiting connection in late June - a significant milestone as it's a great barometer of beRecruited's growth and effectiveness. The 2,000,000th connection came just six months ago in early January (2008).
Another measure of beRecruited's effectiveness is the flurry of positive newspaper articles over the last few days. Each article covers athletes who found recruiting success through beRecruited - one even compared the experience to that of a highly sought after 'free agent'. These are just a couple of the stories that have helped us reach 3,000,000 recruiting connections - but they are testaments to the power of the service and the community (which makes all of us proud to be a part of it):
She shoots, she scores with online recruiters - The Globe & Mail
This fall, the 17-year-old Mississauga right winger will be lacing up her skates for Brown University in Rhode Island, thanks in part to a site called beRecruited.com, a sports-oriented social networking service that aims to connect amateur athletes with recruiters and coaches.... She posted her grades, her SAT scores, some personal information and her various hockey stats, and began including the link to her beRecruited profile with her college applications.
Within a few months, Ms. Wong felt like Mats Sundin might when fielding free-agency offers; in addition to holding discussions with the coach of the women's hockey team at Brown, she was fielding offers from half a dozen other schools that wanted her on their roster. Ms. Wong has since left the site, but is pleased with her results from going online.
"It definitely opened doors to schools that I might never have thought about playing for," she said. "It's a great way to connect with coaches and get your name out there, and it was cheaper than long-distance phone calls or driving down to talk to coaches, so I'm pretty sure my parents were happy about that."
Recruits Make Online Pitch - Atlanta Journal Constitution
Matt Houser, a 2008 Pope High graduate, recently signed both baseball and academic scholarships with the University of Charleston in West Virginia.
"Finding a school that was the right fit was hard," Houser said. "We tried other recruiting sources, some of which were very expensive. I had a couple of contacts through other services, but I found my school through beRecruited."
St. Charles Bound: The Bellville View
Chelsea Hardrick of Belleville High School was determined to take her diving skills to the next level. She was so determined that she went to berecruited.com.
It was a move that paid for her and her future. In the fall she will be attending Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. So now this newly graduated Belleville Tiger will become a Lion.
"It is about eight hours from home on the road and only an hour and half by plane," Hardrick said. "I visited several other colleges but they offered me the most money."
beRecruited was also covered in the Rocky Mountain News: Stop the madness