In a community packed with soccer moms and Little League Baseball dads, youth sports are serious business.
Just look at SportsCombine.com. The Oakton-based site manages a database for high school and youth sports scores, statistics and standings nationwide. The site covers football, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and lacrosse.
On Aug. 22, SportsCombine was selected by The Associated Press wire service to be the official data source for high school sports for all public and private high schools in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Terms were not disclosed.
The pilot project will run a year and could expand nationally. AP will advise every high school in the test area to report scores to SportsCombine rather than calling them in to newspapers individually, which is the current practice.
Teams will call in scores to SportsCombine by either land line or cell phone. Using technology created by SportsCombine and Reston-based iAmigo, the scores will immediately appear in the online database with statistics, standings and scoreboards being updated instantaneously.
SportsCombine will send the information to the wire service in AP format. AP then will be able to distribute the data to its member papers. Essentially, one phone call is all it will take to reach several dozen newspapers and more than 100 radio stations in the test area.
"This deal is historical because it's a blending of new media/Internet media with traditional media," said SportsCombine President Bob Dix. "The agreement with AP demonstrates the magnitude of our capabilities and puts us into the national spotlight."
AP officials were unavailable for comment.
Dix, a former Fairfax County supervisor, is a longtime football, baseball and basketball coach and has a love of high school sports. He now coaches Amateur Athletic Union girls basketball with his wife.
"People are excited about what we do," he said. "The site allows every student athlete, regardless of whether he or she is a star or not, to be recognized on the Internet."
Like most Internet sites, SportsCombine sells ads and has sponsors. Dix declined to disclose revenue for the company, which was founded in 1999, but he said the AP deal does not represent the biggest part of the business.
That comes from being the Internet partner with Nike for traveling basketball events such as the Nike Global Challenge in Beaverton, Ore. SportsCombine provides pre-tournament information, tracks the tournaments and compiles data. Dix said SportsCombine is looking to expand the partnership with Nike to other sports.
The site also has a growing list of affiliate relationships in 65 markets, with local partners including WUSA Channel 9, the Washington Redskins, D.C. United, Virginia High School League, AllLacrosseAmerica.com and the Art Monk Football Camp.
"SportsCombine.com is still a startup," Dix said, "but the financial forecast looks very bright."
Click Here for the Aritcle from the Journal
