High School Athletes Get Noticed and Recruited with New Sports Thread Social Media App Despite COVID-19

DENVER, Feb. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Student-athletes across the country are using Sports Thread 6.0, a free social networking app, announced today, to raise their online visibility and connect with college coaches in hopes of securing roster spots and college scholarships.

Youth athletic games, tournaments and competitions continue to be postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19.  Travel restrictions and NCAA-mandated recruiting restrictions, especially for Division 1 sports, continue to hamper the recruiting process for student-athletes and coaches.

Throughout the pandemic, Sports Thread has seen thousands of new sign-ups per week with student-athletes looking to boost their online presence and interact with the youth sports community which they have been isolated from for almost a year. Sports Thread has also seen hundreds of colleges sign up their sports programs to recruit and use the social network's filters to search for and connect with athletes in current and upcoming graduating classes.

"The athletes on Sports Thread recognize the need to raise their profile online in the absence of live sporting events," said Sean Leary, founder and CEO of Sports Thread. "Likewise, college coaches see the need for connecting digitally with players that fit their program's needs. Sports Thread's social network is disrupting the recruiting industry by enabling these connections through more advanced, easier-to-use software at an unrivaled price — free."

Tyrone Willingham, former head football coach at Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, and University of Washington said: "With most high school sports programs curtailed or shut down completely because of COVID-19, more college coaches and scouts than ever are connecting with potential recruits online. Athletes that have a robust online presence using sports-specific social networks such as Sports Thread are much more likely to attract the attention of and connect with college coaches nationwide."

"Sports Thread levels the playing field for all amateur athlets across the country by enabling them to showcase their skills and communicate directly with fellow players, coaches, parents and fans, regardless of their family financial status, location, or COVID effects on their playing seasons," said Roger Craig, three-time Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers.

SPORTS THREAD 6.0 PRODUCT FEATURES

Sports Thread 6.0 includes new features that: help athletes showcase their skills and get discovered, help college coaches find players they need in the new world of recruiting, improve the app when used at live sporting events, and provide additional resources to youth athletes from trusted brands.

FOR ATHLETES AND COACHES

• Enhanced Profile: Athletes can now enter all information coaches need to evaluate them, including: Season/Career Stats, Measurable Stats, Basic Info, Academics, & Film/Video clips. 
• Athletes Tab: College coaches, athletes and fans can identify athletes with enhanced filters:
• Basic Info: Refine searches by Sport, Grad Year, Age, Gender, Location.
• Position: Identify athletes by position.
• Measurable Stats: Identify athletes by speed, power, agility and strength stats.
• Season/Career Stats: Find players that meet sport-specific stats.
• The Thread: A tailored feed of sport-specific content from athletes, coaches and fans nationwide, plus highly regarded content from Honest Game, The Positive Coaching Alliance and Area Scouts.
• Enhanced Connection Features: Help athletes and coaches connect to the community including: Video 'Autoplay', 'Like' & 'Reply' to comments, post & comment 'Tagging'.
• Enhanced Search: Find athletes, college coaches, university information, and more with enhanced filters.
• Recruiting Tab: It's now easier to find and connect with any college in the United States.
• Chat: Users can privately direct message each other. College coaches initiate conversations with athletes by clicking "Contact Me" on an athlete's profile. Coaches at all levels can easily add up to 100 athletes to a team chat.

FOR EVENTS

Sports Thread has more than 90 leading event organizations that use its free Software-as-a-Service platform to run events. Some premiere partners include: New Balance Future Stars Series, Big Time Sports, Supreme Courts, and the Adidas National Soccer Showcase.  Sports Thread 6.0 features that benefit event and tournament organizers include:

• Registration: Register teams and players for events and collect payments.
• Scheduling: Review tournament schedules and real-time game scores and standings.
• Game Details: Access to team rosters, notes on players, and scores. Select "Attending" to get push notifications about that game.
• Push Notifications: Receive updates from events for field changes, weather delays, scores, schedule updates, etc.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FROM TRUSTED BRANDS

Industry leading brands have partnered with Sports Thread to elevate their visibility and extend the value of their products and services to the app's network of athletes and their families. Sports Thread 6.0 includes new content from trusted brands, including:

• Honest Game - specializes in helping athletes navigate NCAA academic eligibility.
• Positive Coaching Alliance - provides research-based training and resources for coaches, parents and athletes that develops social and emotional skills, molds character, and prepares them for competition and life.
• Area Scouts - provides athletes with state-of-the-art assessments of their overall physical foundation, on-field statistics, and real-time evaluations.
• Backspin Tee - provides innovative training products and resources for baseball and softball players.

ABOUT SPORTS THREAD

Sports Thread, based in Denver, Colorado, offers a free social media-based, self-promotion, and communications software platform for the 125 million student-athletes, coaches, parents and fans in the youth sports market. Founded by Sean Leary, a 28-year- old former college pitcher, Sports Thread was recognized as a 2020 and 2021 "Top 3 Denver Tech Center Start Up" by The Tech Tribune and Crunchbase, and is a top 200 ranked sports app in the Apple App Store. The Sports Thread network, including its mobile app, Software-as-a-Service platform, and social media sites, is used by more than 1 million individuals in the youth athletic community annually.

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SOURCE Sports Thread

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