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ScoutingOhio.com gets bigger, better
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
In its sixth year of operation, Mark Porter’s high school football recruiting website, Scouting Ohio.com, has received a much needed facelift.
The Canfield native and four-year letterman for Kent State calls his labor of love purely a fluke, fully appreciating the fact that his highly-regarded recruiting site keeps receiving high marks from coaches and players.
Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s luncheon at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Porter noted that the site keeps getting bigger and better, adding that through his site players today are receiving much-needed exposure as they eye a college grid career.
“It’s the snowball effect; it just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year,” Porter said. “We recently upgraded the website to include new search functions and features just for college coaches and that has really been well-received.
“We now have a private section for coaches which include bios and photos of the players we are featuring as well as videos of them in action,” Porter said. “It’s a feature of which take plenty of pride in presenting.”
Several years ago, the site expanded from covering local players to include a listing the top players in Ohio and its popular Top-200 list.
The Top 200 list for 2012 soon will be released, but Porter notes that the list is available now to coaches who subscribe to the site.
“We pride ourselves in keeping all profiles and information up-to-date,” Porter said. “We’d like to think that when we post our list it helps to get the players that early exposure.”
Porter said they continually look at the players to see if they are growing, putting on weight, if they changed positions and “anything else related so that we can keep all information as current as possible,” Porter said.
The top two players featured on the Class of 2012 listing are Chris Wormley, a defensive end from Toledo Whitmer and running back Brionte Dunn of GlenOak.
Dunn has committed to Ohio State while Wormley has offers from several top programs, including OSU.
Although the area doesn’t have a strong senior class this year, several player stand out.
Fitch running back William Mahone has already been offered by Cincinnati. Boardman WR Dayne Hammond attended YSU’s summer camp and was offered by the YSU staff at the end of the camp. And Howland offensive lineman Anthony Stanko, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs 280 pounds, is drawing a lot of interest. Also keep an eye on Poland WR Darius Patton, Ursuline RB Akise Teague and Girard WR Landon Smith, who has already committed to YSU, Porter said.