In the summer of 2019, a former Division-One College Football player named Connor Dietz co-founded with three others a website called 'Gametime' (GMTM). Gametime has been called 'the LinkedIn of Sports' because it's a social network that athletes from around the world can use to gain exposure to college sports programs or the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committees with the goal of realizing their athletic ambitions.
Gametime is not to be confused with a Facebook because GMTM does exactly what it says it will for its clientele. Athletes from a 10-year-old trying out for the Red Bull Soccer Academy to a female basketball player looking to make it to the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) can use GMTM to connect with teams or sports organizations and start realizing their dreams.
However, the purpose of Gametime is to increase the chance that a wider net of athletes will be able to access the higher levels of youth, interscholastic and professional sports. GMTM co-founder, Conner Dietz described why geography and income have hindered many athletes from reaching the highest levels of their sport.
For the first time in sports, we have given athletes a 'profile of record' where content is their resume, and they can have all of that content, data and social media in one profile for free. Previously in sports, that type of information has been fragmented, where an athlete could never own their brand and tell their story. - GMTM Co-Founder, Connor Dietz
When Duke basketball’s head coach Mike Kryzewski recruits a player, that young man is already a highly coveted athlete but these are not the people that GMTM seeks to help. Instead, the network's co-founder Conner Dietz wants to help generate more quality exposure for a broader group of aspiring athletes, who do not get the same opportunities that the most renowned prospects are getting.
We believe in creating equitable access in sports, because for years recruiting has been the same. We want to democratize it [so] any athlete around the globe can have a profile of record but can also interact with any college or organization, from Georgia Tech to the Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and camps-- it's really an opportunity marketplace for athletes.
An opportunity marketplace is what Dietz called Gametime, but one of the best Football players to ever play for the Princeton Tigers football team would say that Gametime is a big reason why he ended up competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics and here is how it happened.
How Gametime Helped Charlie Volker
Volker was a great running back in college, but for a number of reasons including the pandemic, wasn’t able to attend the NFL combine or get a shot with an NFL team. Through Gametime, Charlie was able to get in touch with Team USA Bobsled, was then evaluated and made the roster. He then competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics and this all happened within a few months. - GMTM Co-Founder, Conner Dietz
“It’s a dream come true that I didn’t know I had." -@CharlieVolker
— USA Bobsled Skeleton (@USABS) January 21, 2022
Find out how Charlie Volker went from the football field ➡️ bobsled track ➡️ Beijing via @GMTMSports: https://t.co/5BepuEaEFE
Olympic athlete and Rumson, New Jersey's Charlie Volker took an interesting path to this past winter's Beijing Olympics. The United States's Bobsled Program asked all prospects to complete an online Combine, and because he had bobsledded a little bit before, Princeton graduate, Charlie Volker took a chance and completed one.
Volker had always been an incredible athlete going back to high school. At Rumson high school, Volker was a state champion in the 100-meters in Track and Field. So, it's no surprise that he became a first-team All-Ivy league running back during his senior year with the Princeton Football team. When Charlie made a Gametime profile, he included this info as well as workout videos which caught the eye of the U.S. Bobsled program. They invited him to their Olympic training center in Lake Placid, New York, where he began training in Dec. 2021. Through hard work, Volker would then earn a spot on the US Bobsledding four and two-man teams, both of which competed at the 2022 Winter Olympic games.
Here is what Dietz said about the relationship between Gametime and athletes like Volker who try to make the difficult transition from one sport to another.
I was a Football player at Air Force Academy and saw a lot of great athletes but everyone's career ends ultimately. So, when we were building this company, we were talking with Team USA and we asked them, could a Football player play Rugby at a high level and the answer was, 'Absolutely, these athletes can play multiple sports and they can excel at very high levels as well.
Through 'Gametime, Volker was able to reach organizations like the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee which led to earning one of a few spots on the US Bobsled team. This is the bridge that GMTM managed to build between a devoted college athlete whose hard work paid off with him competing for Team USA at the Olympic Games. Yet, while Volker's story is an example of one young man's perseverance, what about those who have less resources than a Princeton graduate?
Bridging the Recruitment Gap
While Charlie Volker is great, GMTM does a lot more than just help one strong college athlete-- they can help rebuild an entire college sports program. That's exactly what Dietz's organization did for Albright College, which is in the center of Eastern PA. Gametime was able to help Albright, which is a D-3 football program to expand their recruiting network and here's how it happened.
In 2021, 40 percent of Albright's recruiting class came from GMTM, and they came from states that they had never been able to recruit from before. Our technology and platform were able to create a bridge, where athletes from the inner cities could find Albright and start competing at the next level whereas before, geography or income were barriers.
It's clearer and clearer now, that Gametime exists to empower the unempowered and already, they are making a big impact in the world of high school and college sports. It's just a matter of time before GMTM gives a college program like the St. Peter's Peacocks Men's Basketball team what they need to recruit more athletes and perhaps start winning NCAA tournaments. If Gametime keeps helping athletes in the same way that they helped Rumson-Fair Haven's Charlie Volker, they will show the world something poetic. That "even the smallest of people can change the course of history."
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