Exciting news: beRecruited has launched the beRecruited Player Card - an embeddable widget that highlights your stats, photos and videos. Every beRecruited athlete has one and the Player Card can be embedded directly onto your MySpace profile, Facebook page, blog, or your favorite website.

Placing your Player Card on blogs and websites is a proven way to increase traffic to your beRecruited profile and improve your chances of being recruited. The widget is just a few days old and has been seen nearly 1,000,000 times. Remarkable!

You can customize your widgets size and color. Either login at beRecruited or visit http://profiles.berecruited.com, find your profile and grab the widget directly from that page. Here is an example (6 others color are available):

March 20, 2008

Drop and Give me 46,001!

The record for pushups in 30 minutes? 2,354. That’s one hell of a workout, and probably more than most people will do in a lifetime.

It’s too bad, too: Pushups are one of those badass, old school exercises that have stuck around for one reason: They work–on your back, chest, shoulders, legs, and core.

Which is why this list of pushup world records has got us so excited. 1.5 million in a year? We can do that!

OK, probably not. But it’s worth trying. And it’s at least worth it to try to get to 50–and be deemed MH Fit.

Like pushups as much as we do? Vote for them–and your other favorite exercises–in our Muscle Madness tournament. This bracket will help us narrow 32 of the greatest exercises around to one: The Best exercise in the world.

beRecruited has become the No. 1 online network connecting high school athletes and college coaches on the basis of a free service. In the first 50 days of 2008, there have been more than 300,000 connections made directly through our service…an average of 6,000 connections per day.

While our users (coaches, athletes and parents) know that our service is free, we have seen increased interest in our deluxe athlete upgrade. That interest is driven by results. Profiles of athletes choosing the deluxe upgrade on average are viewed 3x more than athletes with standard profiles.

Deluxe Features:

See What Coaches View Your Profile-Gain instant access to all coaches that view your profile.

“The feature I thought was most helpful was the section where you could see which coaches/colleges viewed your profile. Being able to have access to that would let me know which colleges I should follow up with.” -Ashlei , successfully recruited softball player.

Letter-of-Interest Generator-Create customized letters to express interest in collegiate programs.

“The letters to the coaches gave me the opportunity to communicate with some schools and get my name out there. It was very helpful in getting the ball rolling in my personal recruiting process and made it a lot easier.” -Justin, successfully recruited lacrosse player.

Featured Athlete-Get additional exposure to coaches by being seen more. Deluxe athletes are showcased on beRecruited’s homepage and other high traffic areas throughout the website.

“Coaches that I wouldn’t have previously thought of to email were able to find me on their own and email me. It was very helpful in that aspect. I received many offers and emails from various college divisions and locations.” -Sarah, successfully recruited softball player.

Student Advantage Membership-The latest addition to the deluxe product, athletes who upgrade to deluxe accounts receive a one-year, complimentary membership to Student Advantage, the nation’s largest student discount program. Major discounts associated with the program include:

• Foot Locker: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)
• Target.com: 10% off your purchases at Target.com
• ALDO shoes: 10% off
• AMC Theatres: Up to 40% off box office prices
• Barnes & Noble.com: Save an additional 5% at Barnes & Noble.com
• CHAMP Sports: $10 off purchases of $50 or more (some exclusions may apply)

So in addition to a higher level of exposure, as well as a higher degree of functionality, deluxe members now save money through this exclusive relationship with Student Advantage.

If you want to upgrade your account, click here to get started.

Will Ferrell and the Semi-Pro team are giving you the opportunity to win a new iPod Shuffle and the official Semi-Pro soundtrack! The contest begins tomorrow (Monday February 11th) and concludes March 10th. Interested yet?!

To win the Semi-Pro iPod Shuffle and Soundtrack:

* Just use beRecruited News (our new sports section!) and collect points by voting, submitting news and commenting!
* The user with the most points during the contest period wins!
* If you aren’t a beRecruited user, you can register here - and anyone can register as a fan!

About Semi-Pro: Will Ferrell stars in Semi-Pro, an outrageous comedy set in 1976 against the backdrop of the maverick ABA – a fast-paced, wild and crazy basketball league that rivaled the NBA and made a name for itself with innovations like the three-point shot and slam dunk contest. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder who used the profits from the success of his chart-topping song “Love Me Sexy” to achieve his dream of owning a basketball team. But Moon’s franchise, the Flint Michigan Tropics, is the worst team in the league and in danger of folding when the ABA announces its plans to merge with the NBA. If they want to survive, Jackie and the Tropics must now do the seemingly impossible – win.

Find more at the Semi-Pro website or check the trailer!

Starring: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Maura Tierney, Will Arnett, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, DeRay Davis, Josh Braaten, Jay Phillips, and Jackie Earle Haley

Today is a monumental day for 100s of football recruits across the nation - and beRecruited was proud to partner with ESPN during their all-out coverage of NCAA’s National Signing Day! Not only are we excited to have been included in their ESPN2 and ESPNU broadcasts and ESPN.com’s online coverage - we are thrilled about the success that many of our football players have seen today! Many beRecruited athletes were mentioned today both on ESPN and ESPN.com - and their beRecruited Profiles have gotten great traffic!

The most important part of what we do is connect athletes with coaches and colleges. Congratulations to everyone who officially signed today and to everyone who has found success through beRecruited.

Video from today’s broadcast:

Photo:

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are interested in getting in shape (personal fitness or triathlon work) - San Francisco City Boot Camp is beginning tomorrow and will be held at Aquatic Park (where the Alcatraz swim races have finish). The Boot Camps will be held Monday, Wednesday, Friday and during the weekend - and begin at 6am, 7am and 8am. They will be organized by Team beRecruited member Anette Herrera.

Learn more at http://www.sfcitybootcamp.com - San Francisco Boot Camps

From Reuters:
beRecruited.com Registers Record Growth in 2007
2 Million Connections Surpassed; More Than 165,000 Now Registered

ATLANTA, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ — beRecruited.com experienced a 241 percent increase in registered high school student-athletes last month as students across the nation increasingly turn to recruiting resources and tools to identify the right university for their academic and athletic preferences. beRecruited, the nation’s No. 1 free online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities, announced record-growth numbers in all categories based on activity during the month of November.

The data shows unprecedented year-over-year growth and affirms beRecruited as the premier platform that connects high school athletes and college coaches.

At the close of November, beRecruited had more than 155,000 registered users, including more than 140,000 high school student-athletes, 9,000 college coaches, and 4,000 high school coaches. More than 700 parents and fans registered with the service, the first month that option was available. The service enjoyed record numbers in November in the following areas:

– New athlete registrations for November: 14,947 (+241 percent over Nov. ‘06) — New college coach registration for November: 508 (+81 percent over Nov. ‘06) — New high school /clubs coach registration for November: 724 — New parent/fan registration for November: 817 — Daily athlete/coach connections for November: Averaged 5,942 daily connections (+211% over Nov. ‘06)

“We are seeing a tremendous increase in our registered users, especially with athletes looking for collegiate opportunities in a highly competitive marketplace,” said Jeff Cravens, president of beRecruited. “Our growth demonstrates the value we are delivering to high school athletes and their parents, as well as college, high school and club coaches.”

beRecruited allows athletes to create profiles of verified athletic and academic information, as well as browse a comprehensive area of university athletic programs and curriculum. In November, athletes uploaded more than 16,000 photos and 500 video clips to the service. The athlete profiles section of the site generated nearly 500,000 page views in November, a 227 percent increase over the previous month.

“We’re focused on educating athletes and their parents on how to use our platform to their advantage,” Cravens said. “The 9,000 registered college coaches that utilize the service provide us with great feedback on how athletes and their parents can develop better profiles, as well as how our overall service can improve. And we continually make improvements in anticipation of a very busy 2008.”

For the month of November, beRecruited experienced growth with new student-athletes in all states across the nation. The top-ten states that registered the most new athletes are as follows: 1) New York; 2) Pennsylvania; 3) Illinois; 4) California; 5) Texas; 6) Ohio; 7) Michigan; 8 ) New Jersey; 9) Florida; and 10) Georgia.

The top-ten sports that registered the most new athletes in November were as follows: 1) Football; 2) Soccer; 3) Basketball; 4) Baseball; 5) Track and Field; 6) Lacrosse; 7) Wrestling; 8 ) Volleyball; 9) Swimming; and 10) Ice Hockey.

beRecruited was founded in 2000 by Ryan Spoon, a collegiate swimmer for Duke University, in an effort to make the recruiting process more efficient for high school athletes and NCAA coaches. First created exclusively for NCAA swimming and diving, beRecruited now serves athletes and coaches from 18 different sports. beRecruited is a free service for registered users, maintaining the founders’ principle of providing a free resource that efficiently and effectively connects student athletes and coaches nationwide.

CONTACT: Greg Hughes, beRecruited.com; 404-394-3700; press@berecruited.com

Amy Sorrells, beRecruited.com; 404-550-4885; press@berecruited.com

SportsWrap has grown from a small project into one of the largest sports blogs on the web. And as we approach our 2,000th blog post, we have now made it easier than ever to follow SportsWrap with two widgets. So click the “Get Widget” button beneath your favorite one, customize it, and post it to your blog or MySpace page and never miss a juicy, sports rumor again:

Smaller Widget:

Bigger Widget:

Listen, Hot Swimming Prospect: athletic recruitment is like job recruitment. Resumes shouldn’t emphasize photographs. But the message that 9,000 recently-enrolled BeRecruited.com NCAA coaches are sending is clear:

If you want to be recruited to play sports in college, you’d better get a decent photo shoot.

That’s my favorite excerpt from an article written on TimedFinals.com (read more) about beRecruited.com named The Swimmers’ Ear: The Facebook of Swimming.

beRecruited Photos is now home to over 75,000 photos and nearly 2,000,000 photo views! With the help of Widgetbox, we have now put together a beRecruited Photos widget that you can place on your MySpace page, blog, etc - Get yours now!