LevelEdge Launches Its Sports Management Application With 5,000 Amateur Athletes.

Business Editors & Sports/Technology Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2000

LevelEdge successfully tapped its target audience and built

one-of-the largest amateur athlete databases by leveraging its

partnerships with Nike, BCI and End of the Oregon Trail 

LevelEdge (www.leveledge.com), the first sports team and recruiting management application and service, announced today the launch of its full application of services with an early database population of 5,000 amateur athletes. This summer was instrumental in validating LevelEdge's proof of concept from both a user and partnership perspective. LevelEdge leveraged partnerships with NIKE, Basketball Congress International (BCI) and End of the Oregon Trail, to collect statistics and athletic profiles of amateur athletes participating in these premiere summer basketball events.

"We attribute much of the summer's overall success to securing strategic relationships with major sports associations and leveraging those relationships to effectively reach our target audience," said Lisa Henderson, president and CEO of LevelEdge. "Consumer adoption validates that there is a need in the market for our service and LevelEdge is in full swing."

Strategic relationships with Nike, BCI and Oregon End of the Trail provided LevelEdge the unique opportunity to reach thousands of amateur athletes, college and high school coaches and professional recruiters by participating in these high profile summer camps. At the camps, LevelEdge educated its target audience and populated the database by collecting performance statistics, along with the player's academic and athletic information.

Nike's summer camps represented the top 800 men and women high school basketball players in the country. These camps include Men's All-America Camp, Women's All-America Camp, Peach Jam and Global Challenge. LevelEdge's stats squad, a group of screened and qualified officials, observed the Nike games and compiled validated statistical information on each amateur athlete. This was the first time Nike allowed an Internet database application company to gather the country's most sought after amateur basketball statistics. LevelEdge's stats squad also collected validated statistical information for the 3,000 amateur basketball players participating in the BCI summer tournaments. Athletic profile information was collected for hundreds of participants at the End of the Oregon Trail premiere summer basketball tournaments for girls.

Amateur athletes are not the only ones to uncover the value of LevelEdge. Throughout the summer months, LevelEdge secured the support of major sports organizations and associations that include the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics (COA), National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA), and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), in turn extending LevelEdge's reach to targeted users nationwide. The NJCAA relationship offers LevelEdge direct access to 28,500 junior college athletes and 9,000 junior college coaches. The COA partnership allows LevelEdge to reach 25,000 community college athletes that annually participate in their California-based sports program. Also highlighting LevelEdge's extended target audience outreach was its participation in NHSACA events this summer. LevelEdge presented its database application to 2,500 high school coaches at the NHSACA National Convention in Lincoln, NE on August 2, 2000. This relationship also provides LevelEdge access to NHSACA's entire pool of members that consists of 50,000 high school coaches.

"By leveraging our relationships with the country's top sporting organizations to reach our target audience from the top down, we are ahead of the game," added Henderson.

LevelEdge is giving athletes a winning edge by building and providing database applications that offer coaches, athletes and recruiters the only complete technology solution in the amateur and professional sports recruiting market. LevelEdge leverages the exposure afforded by the Internet to increase visibility and bring unity to the fragmented process of promoting talented and deserving athletes to colleges and professional teams nationwide. LevelEdge captures the athletic performance of amateur athletes, out of which the company creates a robust and validated database of these statistics and then provides college coaches and college/professional recruiters with searchable profiles on each player. All of the data is compiled and communicated according to NCAA requirements.

Coaches and recruiters will have access to MyEdge Profiles(TM), which include the amateur athlete's athletic performance, academic achievement and physical characteristics. Amateur athletes attending the Nike, BCI and End of the Oregon Trail summer camps were given the opportunity to create a MyEdge Profile on site. Athletes in any sport can log onto www.leveledge.com and create their own MyEdge Profile. In addition to performance data and academic information, MyEdge Profiles also feature the athletes' personalized statements, game photos, extracurricular activities and a university wish list. MyEdge Profiles are part of LevelEdge's comprehensive Web site of communications, editorial content and e-commerce. From free e-mail, chats and message boards, up-to-the-minute sporting news, discounted sporting equipment, apparel and nutritional products, the LevelEdge Web site offers information and services required by all members of the recruiting process (recruiters, coaches, amateur athletes and their parents).

About LevelEdge

Founded in 1999, headquartered in San Francisco with a satellite office in Chapel Hill, NC, LevelEdge is the first sports team and recruiting management application and service that helps track and identify athletes for college scholarships, minor league teams and professional sports agencies. LevelEdge leads the sports team management market with business relationships that include Nike, key high school and coaching associations, professional sports teams, camp/clinic organizations and sports-related media companies. The company has received seed funding from a variety of prominent investors and individuals, including tennis legend Billie Jean King; Labrador Ventures; Fred Sibayan, founder, Exodus; Connie Duckworth and Ann Kaplan, managing directors, Goldman Sachs Private Ventures; Mark Kaleem and Warren Kaplan, founders, AboveNet; Carol Bartz, president and CEO of Autodesk; Angel Investors; and Bernee Strom, CEO of icopyright.com. For more information visit the Web site at www.leveledge.com or call 415/970-5070 ext. 5083.

About Nike

Nike Inc., based in Beaverton, OR, markets its products in more than 100 countries and is the world's leading sports and fitness company. For more information visit the Web site at www.Nikebiz.com or call 503/708-9088.

About Basketball Congress International (BCI)

Basketball Congress International (BCI), based in Livington, TX, is a national non-profit organization that allows all interested youth to participate in basketball events through which they can leverage a team-oriented sport to improve their athletic excellence, attain educational guidance, develop leadership skills, and build self-confidence, while having fun. BCI provides girls and boys the opportunity to showcase their athletic skills before representatives of the nation's universities and junior colleges through local, state and national BCI tournaments and organized league play. For more information visit www.bcibasketball.org.

About End of the Oregon Trail

For more information visit www.ocbasketball.com.

About California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics (COA)

The California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics based in Sacramento, CA, works with The California Community College system that is composed of 71 districts and 107 colleges and annually enrolls nearly 1.5 million students and employs over 70,000 California citizens. The system encompasses 45 million square feet of space, contains approximately 3,500 structures and has an annual state budget of nearly $1.7 billion. One out of every 15 adult Californians is involved with the community colleges and nearly half of all adult Californians have attended a California Community College. The system is an unprecedented federation of continuing opportunity for the citizenry of the Golden State. For more information visit www.coasports.org.

About National High School Athletic Coaches Association (NHSACA)

The National High School Athletic Coaches Association, based in Hamden, CT, is modeled after and endorsed by the GTE Academic All-America Teams program created by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the U.S. Navy Scholastic All-America Teams will be the premier competitive high school recognition campaign in the country. The multi-year program will expand in future years to recognize all high school varsity sports. The U.S. Navy Scholastic All-America Teams are coordinated by the Hamden, Conn. based NHSACA, the country's only high school coaches association created and governed by coaches. Founded in 1965 to educate, recognize and support the 50,000 members across the country, the organization is responsible for selecting the national team members. For more information visit www.hscoaches.org.

About National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC)

The National Association of Basketball Coaches was founded in 1927 and currently claims approximately 5000 members from the ranks of NCAA Divisions I, II, III, NAIA, junior college and high school. Since its inception, the NABC has continually worked to further the best interests of the game of basketball as well as the players and coaches who participate in the sport. For more information visit www.nabc.com.

About National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA)

For more information visit www.njcaa.org.

MyEdge Profile is a trademark of LevelEdge, Inc.