Looks like the days of copy-cats in the sports industry may be over. Video Scout® is a Connecticut company that combines the shooting of sports skills videos for college recruitment, professional sports teams and youth leagues to document player development as well as provide prospect evaluations in the form of custom scouting reports. They have a patent-pending process that combines film with expert evaluators and scouts to add credibility to traditionally scouted game film. They provide a live presence at regular season high school games which provide players a seldom and rare experience of being scouted while playing. Their youth events include Little League Baseball evaluation days where all players are filmed and documented along with multiple evaluations on each player, and even a big league player appearance. Video Scout’s patent pending system of reporting can then compared and cross-check multiple evaluations instantly against each other (a traditionally done, time consuming and frustrating scouting step in the process). “What’s better is that it is a relevant evaluation that means so much more to a player and it replaces written reports, which scouts and coaches hate preparing. Everyone loves it because they get so much more information down on a player and it makes everyone better at what they do”, Video Scout’s CEO, Tom DeMorro states.

Players then get accurate feedback and direction in their skills and weaknesses with a video reference to watch over and over again online. Over time, featured scouts, coaches and even current professional players add content to reports through a number of tools available to online viewers.  Embedded tags, film markers and scouting checklists that create rankings and scores round out the online video with reports that are recalled during viewings and encourage player review. Personality tests, interviews and a number of other scouting experiences take players through a process of first being scouted, then being verified and ultimately being endorsed by scouts. The scouting, verifying and endorsement occurrences coincide specifically with scouting experiences that are designed to gather content on players and prospects over time with multiple live viewings and opinions. Video Scout's website is a scouting portal that brings coaches, players, scouts, and even cameramen together to turn every day games into a live scouted event that is published online. Their mission is to correct the flawed system of developing and marketing student athletes by emphasizing the difference between scouting and recruiting.

“You need to be scouted before you can be recruited"
DeMorro explains that "...the families and players have been romanced into false hope by every recruiting service and event that over promises and under delivers on the real truth. In the real world of scouting" he continues, "players need to be seen playing. They need to be seen playing live and they need to be seen multiple times over a period of months or years. In our age of instant gratification, families and players expect to get recruited through companies calling them on the phone who don't even know the player and have never seen them. “You need to be scouted before you can be recruited", DeMorro states. "Parents are being lied to straight to their faces and the owners of these companies know it. Furthermore, event organizers quote inflated percentages on a player's chances of getting to the next level simply by participating in their event. Event companies are in the event business and when it's over they are working on the next event. They do nothing to help student athletes after the event is over and if there is a next level event to get invited to a national game, everyone gets an invitation. The best thing we can do and promise is that these players will be seen and demand attention.  That, I can promise."  Mr. DeMorro should know. He has been providing coverage for nearly 20 years to most of the large sports event companies in the nation. He has worked along side of them closely and has experienced the flaws first hand. Video Scout's events include live scouts, a custom scouting report online with film on every player and a broadcast presentation of its players streamed live to college coaches; Something that players and families deserve when attending events. “But no one else does this”, frustrating DeMorro, “and it's about time that families get what they’ve bargained for when attending an event that is promoted as a recruiting showcase or combine. They should get exposure, not the staff of the company wearing different school hats and representing a presence that doesn’t exist.” Video Scout’s original film and scouting content is available to players and parents as well as coaches and organizations to build custom scouting reports so that prospects are taken more seriously then ones with film alone. The goal is to track and increase the chances of high school players in continuing their career into college. 

For prospect evaluation, Video Scout's system has been used in the NHL draft and featured on NHL.com to all 30 professional teams to provide instantaneous cross checking of multiple scouts on the top draft eligible players in the world. Their revolutionary evaluations are a powerful learning tool for player development as well as prospect evaluation at every level in sports. They are currently covering the top high school baseball players at their own expense. Video Scout can fit into youth league seasons for player development, which is also a huge concern of the company to make sure young players are getting the right information when they need it most. College camps, high school teams, league organizations or event directors can obtain their services to document players and participants and replace written evaluations with a custom evaluation on all players at www.videoscout.org.