There's a new player on the national sports-media scene, and its goal is to cover every high school athletic program in the country. Thanks in part to $7 million of venture capital, MaxPreps is expanding from a regional high school sports site to a national one.
The heart of the MaxPreps.com Web site is statistical information from teams and games across the country. Users can look up single-game or season statistics for individual players or teams and also find statistical rankings for a league, their state, and even the entire country.
MaxPreps counts on schools to provide up-to-date and accurate statistics. In return, it offers a way for teams to post their statistics in a standardized format and be included in its local and national rankings. "We're trading information services for information," says Andy Beal, MaxPreps Chief Executive Officer. "We have an online statistics program where coaches can hand-input or import their statistical information from each game. The result is a system-generated series of Web pages, including one for every player on the roster."
Since starting up in Northern California in 2002, MaxPreps has grown to cover 10 states, mostly on the East and West Coasts, with a focus on football and basketball. Beal says about 80 percent of football coaches in California used MaxPreps in 2005 while the numbers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey—more recent additions to the site—were closer to 50 percent. As part of its efforts to expand coverage to all 50 states, MaxPreps is working closely with state coaches associations.
MaxPreps plans to provide similar national coverage for boys' basketball this winter and focus on more sports in the near future. It is also providing high school content to ESPN and USA Today.