Rivals.com Launches High School Network, RivalsHigh.com, Offering Virtual High School News and Community

Business Wire, August 16, 2000

Sports Editors

SEATTLE--(BW SportsWire)--Aug. 16, 2000

In response to the demand for insider information on high school athletics, Rivals.com today announced the debut of RivalsHigh.com (www.rivalshigh.com), a gateway to more than 80 Web sites dedicated to covering all facets of high school sports. RivalsHigh.com is part of Rivals.com (www.rivals.com), a leading online sports network of sports team and affinity channels and the Internet's No. 1 sports news site in stickiness for 11 consecutive months, according to Nielsen NetRatings at-home user data.

Visitors to RivalsHigh.com will be able to access online communities to interact with like-minded fans through message boards and chat rooms on the network's high school sites in the areas of football, basketball, track and several other sports. These sites also feature in-depth news and notes, streaming video and a searchable player database highlighted by statistics and video on more than 4,000 of the nation's top prep athletes.

Noah Stanley, Rivals.com National High School Editor, is dedicated to bringing this new division to life. Stanley, a 1995 graduate of the University of San Diego in the area of Business Administration/Marketing, has more than five years experience in web design and publishing working for his own award-winning Rivals.com site ToreroFans.com (www.torerofans.com) for USD.

"The Rivals.com High School Network is dedicated to fostering superior content in the arena of high school athletics," Stanley said. "Our commitment to in-depth coverage is ever present in the strong online communities we create by empowering our high school experts with the tools to succeed. Our experts go the extra mile to provide superior content via one-on-one interviews, event coverage, and analyzing as well as updating statistics daily."

An entire list of all high school sites can be found by visiting RivalsHigh.com, and following is a selection of some of the high school channels that are featured:

DyeStat.com (www.dyestat.com)- John Dye, publisher of DyeStat.com (www.dyestat.com), is a track parent whose hobby became a new career at age 60. Dye, a former newspaper journalist, started following track primarily to keep up with his children's track competitions. Dye's interest in the sport led him to create DyeStat.com which features on-site coverage of all national meets, daily highlights, photos, features, video clips and the "DyeStat Elite" rankings that are unique in the sport with more than 100 athletes deep for 48 events.

HickoryHusker.com (www.hickoryhusker.com) - HickoryHusker.com publisher Leigh Evans breaks all barriers to provide in-depth coverage on the world of Indiana basketball. Evans is a long time student of Hoosier Hysteria through memberships with the Basketball Historical Society, The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association and the Internet Basketball Writers Association. The site features a wealth of knowledge on Indiana basketball including both boys' and girls' high school basketball, tournament coverage, extensive player news, interviews, game highlight videos and daily news and message boards.

GAVSV.com (www.gavsv.com) - Georgia Varsity Sports Vent publisher Jack Keith started his site in 1997 and it has already become a valuable resource for many local media outlets. The site gets to the bare bones of Georgia football with extensive postings of all local games, informing message boards, chat, photos and videos.

Based in Seattle, Rivals.com is a leading infrastructure services company that aggregates hundreds of Web site communities in one network. The Rivals.com network consists of hundreds of team and affinity channels, with more than 700 writers and experts who deliver leading in-depth team and player coverage. The proprietary Rivals.com technology allows publishers to input their expert commentary and news information without having to program or design the site. Investors include Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (www.humwin.com), Intel Corporation (www.intel.com) News Corp.'s News Digital Media (NYSE:NWS), producer of FOX Sports Online (www.foxsports.com), The Phoenix Partners (www.phoenixvc.com) and SOFTBANK Capital Partners (www.sbcp.com).