SportsTrac, Inc. "Teams Up" with Perot Systems for college athletic scholarships

Business Wire, Sept 4, 1996

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 1996--SportsTrac, Inc. and Perot Systems today announced a long-term technology partnership to bring the first comprehensive, Internet-based recruiting tool for college-bound athletes to the World Wide Web.

The new product, which is called SportsTrac.COM, will debut on the Web this month. It's an on-line database that gives coaches and recruiters nationwide access to athletic and academic profiles of high school and junior college athletes. With SportsTrac.COM, coaches can better qualify and narrow their list of candidates; while reducing time and money spent on recruiting trips.

SportsTrac has teamed up with Perot Systems to develop a highly scaleable database system. The program consists of an object-oriented system interface, is user-friendly, and lets a person easily enter, view, search and update thousands of athlete profiles. SportsTrac.COM is currently designed for football, but Perot Systems will continue to expand it to include as many as 30 men's and women's sports.

SportsTrac, Inc. evolved from Taylor Satellite Talk, Inc. (TST), a communications leader in providing audio programs and services on the Internet. Edward Taylor, Chairman and CEO of TST and SportsTrac, says, "Because this is a new concept that uses a relatively new medium -- the Internet, we needed an organization that was not only technically savvy, but one that could help us manage and support the long-term growth of the system. Perot Systems already had the wealth of application and design skills, but it was their willingness to tie their compensation directly to the success of our project that made them the natural choice."

SportsTrac.COM President and ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen says the potential number of students who will use this service is phenomenal "Although SportsTrac.COM will be especially beneficial for the 735,000-plus high school football players across the country, it will also be good for high school student athletes in nearly 30 other sports as well as junior college players. This could result in more than 1 million students nationwide being listed with SportsTrac.COM each year. We plan to take college athletic recruiting into the next century and Perot Systems will help get us there."

Karl Taylor, Perot Systems project manager, says the agreement with SportsTrac.COM is an ideal arrangement. "As their technology partner, Perot Systems has created an innovative database solution which will not only bring this vision to life, but will also position SportsTrac to be the premier provider of other recruiting-related services to the Internet community in the future."

SportsTrac.COM athlete profiles will feature photos and personal information such as sport(s) played, graduation year, position(s) played, statistics of performance and academic qualification (as measured by ACT and SAT scores). The system will allow coaches to narrow their prospect list by customizing their search. The Internet home site for SportsTrac.COM is http://www.SportsTrac.COM. The Internet home site for Perot Systems is http://www.ps.net.

CONTACT: SportsTrac.COM

Julie Carpenter, 918/481-5252

or

Perot Systems

Kristi Adams, 214/383-5602