By Matt O'Hern

Sports writer

In the information age of instant communication, high school athletes have a new way to showcase their skills to coaches around the nation.

Jumpforward.com is a free networking Web site that educates athletes about the recruiting process. The Web site's main features include player profiles, a database for contacting college coaches and a server for unlimited video highlight uploads.

Last week, the Web site launched its nationwide tour with a stop at the Cocoa Expo during an all-star soccer tournament. Parents, coaches and players learned about the site during a presentation on Dec. 27.

The Web site was started by Sarah Bilek and Jesse Duggan, who played high school sports in Minnesota and remember the frustration they encountered during their college searches.

"We wished we had been more involved in sports in college," Duggan said. "There was that gap between high school college coaches where there was no effective communication."

The unlimited video upload option allows athletes to distribute their highlight videos to every coach in the United States, compared to the traditional method of sending videotapes and DVDs through the mail.

Another feature is the "click to call" button, which provides athletes with the ability to search for a college and call the athletic office through their computer microphone and speaker system.

In addition to the video features, the site also supplies athletes and coaches with recruiting calendars, which updates them daily on the NCAA recruiting schedule and online grade tracking sheets, which compare the student's current grades and scores to the college standards.

The site is in beta mode until Feb. 1, which means that the web site will evaluate their current format and tweak it according to the feedback received from users.

Jumpforward.com has contact info for 2,580 colleges and 55,000 coaches in all 17 sanctioned sports, as well as other sports such as college surfing teams. The list is a result of five-months worth compiling information from university Web sites.

One of the main conveniences the site offers college coaches is an automated compliance report, which maintains a detailed record of each call and e-mail between an athlete and a coach.

The report assists compliance officers at college athletic departments, who are in charge of tracking contact with high school prospects.

"From the college coach's side, compliance is one of the biggest issues in the process," Bilek said. "What happens on our system is when you click to call, we integrate all of our information into the NCAA database and they've saved themselves a few hours."

College coaches can also search the database for profiles of every registered athlete through a feature known as the communications dashboard. With the multiple options available for the coaches and the athletes, many of the former obstacles of communication have been removed.

"There are lots of middle men in the equation who are charging parents thousands of dollars, but we're a tool and we enable and empower parents to track, manage and organize the entire recruiting process," Bilek said. "This is a great tool for the athletes who are clearly Division II, NAIA and JUCO who need a voice to say 'I'm out here, too.'"

Brevard Lady Expos soccer coach James Kryger, used to coach women's soccer at Western Carolina University and coaches the professional women's soccer team.

"I think that it's very easy for the top 10 percent of kids to get recruited, but 60-70 percent get overlooked," Kryger said. "I think programs like Jumpforward.com help the kids contact colleges. It's a wonderful opportunity for them to get seen and I think it's a great program that's really going to develop."

For information, visit www.jumpforward.com.

Contact Matt O'Hern at (321) 751-5960 or ohern@hometownnewsol.com.