• by Michael Shields , December 10, 2004

Greg Oden, an Indianapolis high school junior, is on the current cover of SchoolSports magazine. Why should anyone care?

A few years ago, a relatively unknown kid named LeBron James was a SchoolSports cover subject. Many are already predicting that Oden will be the NBA's next big thing.

The celebrity of teen-phenoms like James and Oden speaks to the growing prominence of high school sports in this country, and also the power of SchoolSports close-to-the-ground access to high school athletics.

"There is no question that high school sports, particularly high school basketball, is booming," said SchoolSports President and CEO Jim Kaufman.

Yet the magazine is often the first to talk about these athletes, with little competition. "Particularly in the major metro areas, the papers in those markets have so much coverage of professional and college sports and little high school," he said. "Yet there is such a demand for this content."

While serving to satisfy the growing demand for high school sports knowledge, SchoolSports' primary mission is to celebrate sports among its high school readership. Started as a Boston-only sports magazine in 1997, SchoolSports is now in 15 major markets, delivering a circulation of 650,000 eight times a year.

While some content appears in each issue, each cover in all 15 markets is localized.

Producing a magazine that teens will enjoy while also assuaging any concerned parents and teachers can be a tricky business. "It is a difficult proposition--creating something cool and compelling to 17-year-olds and still palatable to administrators and teachers," said Kaufman.

But since SchoolSports takes a positive approach, there are few objectors. "Because we are celebrating the accomplishments of these kids, the administrators love it," he said. "We are giving kids recognition. Plus, athletic directors will tell you that sports are used to promote the school."

Not that getting any sort of marketing materials inside school walls is simple. "It is a difficult relationship to build," Kaufman said.

To maintain relationships with its more than 4,000 partner high schools, SchoolSports has a department dedicated to marketing outreach, delivery, distribution, and reader feedback (they often publish readers' stories).

Once inside, SchoolSports must also be respectful of its mostly 15- to 18-year-old audience by being selective about what sort of ads it accepts. "We have a higher threshold," Kaufman said. What helps is that a lot of its advertisers are already well versed in the travails of marketing to kids, and some are even regulated.

SchoolSports receives boxes of footwear, apparel, movies, and gaming ads; its clients include the U.S. Army, Nike, Gillette, and the NBA. "One of the really compelling things [for marketers] is that these kids are influencers. The average high school student looks to them for style."

In addition to the eight school-only issues each year, SchoolSports began publishing two special issues a year in 2003: one dedicated to high school football in the late summer and one dedicated to basketball in December. "These reach much broader audiences," Kaufman said. "Fanatics, college recruiters, AAU coaches, and 60-year-olds who graduated from these schools."

There may be more special issues down the road, but the magazine, which has seen its ad pages soar by 80 percent in 2004, will not abandon its bread and butter. "Our core will always be high school kids," Kaufman said.

In the future, Kaufman plans coverage of a wider variety of sports, as well as an increased dedication to girls' sports (there has already been a story on "the female LeBron," he says). He also hopes to orchestrate a major expansion by January 2006, adding 10 markets and going over a million in circulation.