Granted, I'm one of the few cyberdorks who somehow exists without a MySpace page. But I do know when I smell something sporty baking in the oven. Introducing: MySportsGroove.com. The site won't officially be launched until February, but the idea seems ahead of its time. Basically, it's an online community geared toward amateur athletes.
"It will be a unique place for athletes of all levels to congregate and communicate under one roof," says MySportsGroove CEO D.L. Wallace, who founded the mondo-successful DFW Business Training Center and, damn him, retired at age 35. "Players can post their stats. Coaches can exchange information. People in all sports will be connecting on all levels."
The company, whose skeleton site is here, kicked off its project with a meet-n-greet last week at Dallas' Renaissance Hotel that featured Dallas Cowboys running back Tyson Thompson.
Best I can tell, the thing ought to be huge. Maybe not MySpace huge or Facebook huge, but how cool, much less convenient, will it be for high school or even junior college players to piece together their stats and video highlights, then simply hit a button and market themselves to every college coach in the country? Says Wallace, "It'll be like an online agent."
It will work for small colleges who don't have ample recruiting budgets. It will work for underrated players -- like, um, at least some of Southlake Carroll's players just have to be among the state's Top 100 recruits, don't they? It will cater to band members, trainers and even provide links to Dallas Cowboys cheerleader tryouts.
In other words, it sounds like MySpace, only with more games and less gossip. --Richie Whitt
