Hey student athletes – do you think you have what it takes to compete at the next level?

A newly formed Web site, www.ProRecruitNetwork.com, may be where you want to end up the next time you’re surfing the net.

The site is a sort of “MySpace meets Facebook” for athletes and sports recruiting. It’s a meeting place for scouts, agents, managers and coaches of professional teams to look at talent and contact them if they feel the athlete has the skills necessary to play at their team’s level.

“There could be someone from the NBA, MLB or any other sort of professional team viewing the site at any given time,” said Elyzabeth Massucci, associate publicist at Rubenstein Public Relations Inc., a public relations firm that represents Pro Recruit Network.

Massucci said more than 5,000 pro agents, scouts, managers and coaches are signed up with and utilize the Web site, which is currently undergoing some renovations.

“Many amateur, semipro and aspiring athletes don’t have the time or money to travel and meet with agents, scouts, coaches and team management or to go to team clinics and open tryouts, so we are bringing them to the decision makers through the Internet via ProRecruitNetwork.com,” said co-founder Burton Rocks.

There are many examples of professional athletes today who were never drafted and “flew under the radar,” during and after their college careers. Iowa’s own Kurt Warner is one of those athletes, as well as Ben Wallace of the Chicago Bulls, Earl Boykins of the Milwaukee Bucks and Priest Holmes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who were all not drafted, but eventually found success at the pro level.

“Speaking from experience, talent isn’t always discovered through drafts,” said Jim Leyritz, former Yankee and part of the www.ProRecruitNetwork.com advisory board. “Sometimes, it’s that one time, or that right place at the right time. You can never have enough eyes out there looking for talent, and you must be open to any means to discover new ways to find that certain player.”

According to the Web site’s press release, it is currently attracting professional teams such as the Buccaneers, Saints, Cowboys, Panthers, Titans, Vikings, Jaguars, Bills, Broncos, Jets, Reds, Capitals, Jazz, Suns and Trail Blazers, as well as representatives of the PGA Tour, WNBA and AFL, among many others.

Those closest to the ISU athletic department, however, seem to be a bit skeptical of the potential the network holds.

Women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly has never heard of the site, and said there are a lot of recruiting sites similar to www.ProRecruitNetwork.com that like to “prey on college athletes.”

“Personally I don’t think those things really impact how teams scout,” Fennelly said. “The pros already have a really good scouting system, and if you’re good enough to make it, then you’ll be there.”

Senior associate athletics director for communications Steve Malchow said if an athlete were to try the Web site, it would not have a negative impact on his or her career.

“If it’s free and someone wishes to market themselves in that way, than I don’t see any negatives,” Malchow said.

He also didn’t have much of a positive outlook in response to the network either.

“The most effective way to get yourself noticed is to have a successful college career,” Malchow said. “It is, though, one way to get yourself noticed, but with the major sports, they all have their own scouts. If you’re going to get drafted, you’re going to get drafted. I wouldn’t put all my eggs in an online network.”