New recruiting site is big investment

Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Nobody likes being the last one picked. A new college recruiting Web site is hoping to give high school student-athletes a chance to avoid being looked over come signing day.

Eporro.com, a social networking-styled recruiting site founded by Syracuse native Jim Cavale, is gaining ground in Central Alabama as it reaches it’s one year anniversary.

Cavale, an Upstate New York baseball player who dreamed of playing ball in the South, got his chance at the University of Montevallo, before a shoulder injury ended his career before his junior year.

The injury led to concentrating his efforts on broadcasting, which in turn led to the opportunity to meet coaches throughout the Southeast while working with CSS and ESPN U.

From there, Eporro was born.

In April 2008, Cavale found an investing firm in New York to buy his idea and support his business. It didn’t take long for the first student-athlete to sign up and use the site to help get an offer to play in college.

Since then, many individuals and 25 high schools have joined.

Cavale said a new partnership is set to begin this week, as the City of Birmingham is to announce that it will pay for all Birmingham City Schools to become members of the site and allow its services free to its students. He is also in talks with the Jefferson County School System for a similar deal and hopes these deals will lead to similar agreements with Shelby County and eventually all systems across the state.

Spain Park has joined on as a charter member and Cavale hopes to help Pelham, Thompson, Oak Mountain, Chelsea and Montevallo get their athletes scholarships soon.

The concept is easy. Students sign up and log in with a password to set up a profile with stats, info, video and photos that only coaches can see. No more of this Rivals and Scouts stuff feeding the fans. The site seems to be truly a service to the kids and coaches, and an investment for high schools.

Outside the Lines is a weekly opinion column.