Christmas Comes Early to North America's Prep Football Superstars; Rivals.com Announces Rivals.com All-America Team

Business Wire, Dec 20, 1999

Sports Editors, Business/Technology Editors

NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM)

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SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1999

Standout Players Include Brock Berlin, Michael Munoz

and D.J. Williams; Player of the Year to be Announced

at Rivals.com Hula Bowl on January 22

North America's high school football superstars received an early Christmas present from the nation's top football recruiting analysts. Rivals.com (www.Rivals.com), the world's largest network of sports team and specialty channel Web sites, today announced its Rivals.com All-America Team starring the best prep football players at each position as selected by the network's experts. The Rivals.com Player of the Year and other honors will be announced at the Rivals.com Hula Bowl Maui -- Official All Star Game of NCAA Football on January 22 at War Memorial Stadium on Maui.

J.C. Heckman, chairman and CEO of Rivals.com, said, "It's exciting to announce the second annual Rivals.com All-America Team, comprised of future college and NFL greats. Fans are eager to discover these dedicated athletes, who are potentially the next Ron Dayne or Peyton Manning. Our network of recruiting experts invested thousands of hours personally identifying the best player at each position. We will announce the winners of our top awards and honor the team at the Rivals.com Hula Bowl, 11 days before Letter of Intent Day."

Bobby Burton, the nation's top college football recruiting analyst and editor-in-chief of the network's Rivals100.com (www.Rivals100.com) recruiting site, collaborated with other senior Rivals.com analysts. They traveled to hundreds of high school football games to personally assess and interview this elite group of candidates. The Rivals.com analyst team also included Jamie Newberg of BorderWars.com (www.BorderWars.com), Bill Kurelic of KurelicRecruiting.com (www.KurelicRecruiting.com), Jeremy Crabtree of Big12Blitz.com (www.Big12Blitz.com), Brentt Eads of StudentSports.com (www.StudentSports.com), Mike Bakas of EasternJournal.com (www.EasternJournal.com), Chris Pool of PigskinRecruiting.com (www.PigskinRecruiting.com) and Greg Biggins of PacWestFootball.com (www.PacWestFootball.com).

The analysts also selected the Rivals.com overall Player of the Year, as well as Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Additionally, in recognition of the significant contributions of female high school athletes, an Athlete of the Year award has been established. These honors will be presented at the Rivals.com Hula Bowl.

Brock Berlin, the highly regarded senior from Evangel Christian Academy in Shreveport, La., who will attend the University of Florida next year, was named the Rivals.com All-America Team quarterback. Highly recruited De La Salle linebacker D.J. Williams was also named to the team. Following is a break down of the complete Rivals.com All-America Team 2000: