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Product Launch: Positive Early Reviews for “Recruited,” a Free App Combining Social Networking with a College Coach Recruiting Portal

Recruited is a new app that can help athletes alert coaches, wherever they are, with notifications and video updates.

Recruited, a free new social network app that allows parents and high school athletes from any sport to set up a profile where they can post game and practice videos, photos and information for college coaches, was released this week.

It is found on both the Apple or Google Play app stores by searching Recruited.

Kevin Long, the CEO of Recruited, an Extra Inning Softball correspondent and the father of power-hitting first-baseman Lindsey Long—ranked #74 in the 2022 Extra Elite 100 rankings and member of the Thunderbolts 04 team—said this week:

“I tried a lot of different recruiting platforms for my daughter and all of them were missing something or another…and they are all expensive.  I didn’t like that, so I built a better platform and I made it free for everyone.”

There are a number of unique features on Recruited that make it cutting-edge.

For one, parents can record and post videos and photos from within the Recruited app itself or choose from a video or photo from their phone library, post it to their athlete’s profile and an alert is sent in real-time to all college coaches who are following that athlete.

“If your athlete does something during a game that you post on Recruited, there is a good chance the college coaches following your athlete will see it within a few minutes, or less, of it happening–even if they aren’t there,” said Long.

“The benefits of this are numerous, but can you imagine if your athlete is doing well and the coach just left your location or was somewhere else at the time?

With Recruited, the coach now has a nudge to leave where they are at and come watch your athlete’s game. For smaller schools who may not have a huge travel budget, they can still see what their recruits are doing in near real-time.” – Kevin Long

Recruited was well-received by college coaches and by the players who got to test it out at the Bolts 5 Star Showcase this past weekend, according to the platform’s creator.

The Recruited feed page utilizes social media-like post updates.

“We tested it this weekend with a few college coaches and we invited players from my daughter’s organization, the Birmingham Thunderbolts, to try it out and give us feedback.”

“The response was overwhelmingly positive, so I started pushing it out to others this week.”

Ted Flannery, the head coach of the Thunderbolts 04 said, “Recruited is a free app. This is a no-brainer. For the athlete, it’s a win because they are able to post video or updates that coaches, who would otherwise not be able to see them, will now be alerted and be able to watch.”

“Put in the time, and when coaches are looking at your profile, they will be able to see how you are doing, where you are playing, etc.”

Flannery also felt Recruited would be of significant benefit to coaches.

“College coaches are tasked with the impossible job of seeing kids all over the country,” Flannery explains, “Every weekend they are in a different location and while they are watching one elite showcase, they are missing many others.

“Recruited allows coaches to keep track of athletes who may be miles away. I think coaches will love the ability to follow some athletes without being inundated with constant updates, emails and texts from thousands of kids who they are not following. It will cut down on the noise for them.” — Ted Flannery

Long said parents told him they are comforted knowing that college coaches are being verified via either their  university (.edu) email addresses or by submitting a school ID or driver’s license prior to seeing their athletes bio information.  Parents and athletes can choose to allow only verified coaches to follow their athletes if they want to.

The Recruited app’s bio page can make is so only verified coaches can follow the athlete.

Athletes responded positively to another important feature to them: the app takes away a lot of the social pressure of tallying “likes” and “followers” as the platform doesn’t publicly show the number of followers they have (although athletes can follow and comment on friend’s posts and can tell when a coach is following them).

“It combines the best of a social network for the athletes with being a customized recruiting portal for college coaches–all in one place,” Long believes. “The coaches no longer have to wonder if they are missing the athletes’ posts in their social media feeds and athletes and parents don’t have to wonder if a coach will read their email or text – the next time the coach opens Recruited, they will see the posts from the players they are following, and that is it.”

“They don’t have to sit down to a computer and log in to a site and search for an athlete’s profile.  With Recruited, the coaches choose who they are interested in, follow them, and those feeds are coming directly to them whenever they open the app on their phone.  No noise or posts from friends and family, it’s a dedicated, NCAA-compliant recruiting portal for the coaches while also being a social network for the athletes.”

Another unique feature is that the Recruited account is meant to be shared by the family so the parents can create profiles for their children in each of the sports they want to be recruited in.

Long added, “We are unusual from a social network standpoint in that we actually encourage parents and children to set up one account and use it as a family.  They all have the same goal in mind: to get a college coach to notice the athlete.”

The Indiana resident joked: “It’s also like having a personal Bat Phone for Grandma and Grandpa.  Sign them up for an account of their own, download Recruited for them and follow their grandkid.   Then anytime the grandkid does something worthwhile, they will get a push notification on their smartphone no matter how far away they are.”

“They can be poolside in Boca or sitting comfortably in the Barca lounger nodding off, but the minute that alert hits, they will be excited to see how awesome their grandkid is doing!”

Darryl Inscoe, father of Madison Inscoe, (#71 on 2022 Extra Elite 100) who also plays for the Thunderbolts 04 team, said, “I like a lot of things about it.  It’s easy to set up for an athlete or a coach while also being very useful to each.  It weeds out the noise present on other social media platforms and narrows it down the number of athletes a coach wants to follow.  It opens up a world of information to coaches, centralized in one location.  It allows athletes and parents to truly know what interest they are generating.  In short, it’s the new way to do recruiting.”

*****

Click HERE to download the Recruited app for free on Apple.
Click HERE to download the Recruited app for free on Google Play.

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