(Youth1) – As President and CEO of Junior Rank, Shaon Berry has created the nation’s premier evaluation and informative company for junior athletes.  With over 41 million children participating in youth athletics each year, Berry saw a need for the next generation of athletes to be able to showcase their talents on a national platform, so he developed an online resource in www.juniorrank.com that not only provides exposure for the nation’s most outstanding 6th-9th grade football players, but also educates players on how to succeed both on the field and in the classroom.

“No organization in the country is more focused on identifying, developing and recognizing the next generation of great student athletes,” Says Berry.

Junior Rank holds football camps and showcases across the country like the 2010 Elite 50 Diamond Flight Camp in San Diego August 6-8, that provide athletes from 6th- 9th grade the opportunity to compete against the best talent both regionally and nationally, while receiving instruction from former NFL and collegiate athletes and coaches. In addition to being tested with the same drills NFL athletes endure at the combine such as the 40 yard dash, vertical jump and agility shuttle, campers receive reinforcement on the necessity of being a good person.  As a focal part of JuniorRank’s message, athletes are not only encouraged, but expected to be future leaders at their schools, on their teams and within their communities by maintaining integrity, discipline and academic excellence.

Junior Rank considers all their athletes “diamonds in the rough” and uses a diamond ranking system – 4 diamonds being the highest, opposed to the “stars” ranking system used in college recruiting.  Along with Berry, JuniorRank utilizes the keen eyes and expertise of their Diamond Scouts, Randy Taylor and Tom Lemming.

Randy Taylor brings over 30 years of collegiate recruiting experience including stints at Illinois, UNLV, UCLA (where he landed the #1 recruiting class in the country) and Minnesota.  He currently serves as the NCSA Football Recruiting Coordinator and joined Junior Rank to help identify top recruits across the country.  Taylor provides evaluation of athletes, along with an avenue for video, transcript and testing numbers to reach Division I football programs.

Tom Lemming is widely known throughout the industry as the recruiting guru for college football.  Commencing in 1978, Lemming began ranking athletes and constructed a newsletter he circulated to college programs and fans alike.  He continues his successful recruiting services today, traveling over 50,000 miles December through June to catch glimpses of the nation’s best talent in an effort to rank them.  Noticing his unrivaled ability to scout and rank the nation’s top athletes, prestigious organizations such as ESPN, USA Today and The Sporting News have called on him to write about the recruiting world.  He also has his own television show, Tom Lemming’s Generation Next on College Sports TV and recently had a cameo in the film, The Blind Side.

Youth1 has become a media partner with Junior Rank, and Shaon Berry took time out to give his thoughts on the recruiting process and youth athletics in general.

Y1: Can you talk about your own experience as a youth sport athlete and how it played a part in your adult life?
Shaon: My early sports experience revolved more around baseball than football; both my grandfather and several cousins played professionally, so that was a more natural pull for me. In fact, during my last at-bat during the Little League World Series, I was struck out by future Major Leaguer Brett Boone.  He threw the first off-speed pitch I had ever seen at age 11, and I swung before the ball even left the mound.  It was embarrassing, but he turned out pretty good which made me feel better.

As for how they shaped me today, a great lessoned learned for me in both playing and coaching youth sports goes as follows: As a coach, player, or parent remember that the correlation of who your young athlete is today and how successful they will become, is always determined in large part by their ability to learn, grow, and develop. JuniorRank is focused on identifying, recognizing, rewarding and developing all of these young athletes.

Y1: You played football at Pitt. Describe your experiences there and how you transitioned into what you do today.
Shaon: As an average member of a very talented University of Pittsburgh football team, I played mostly special teams and backup fullback under Coach Mike Gottfried, a wonderful coach who believed much more in me than I did in myself at the time.  

After school and an unsuccessful attempt at professional sports, I was fortunate enough to land a position in Human Resources which eventually became a career.  Little did I know that after 18 years and several positions ranging from entry-level to executive, those very same acquired skill-sets and work related experiences would directly translate into operating what is now called JuniorRank.   

Y1: What was your “a-ha!” moment that led you to create Junior Rank?
Shaon: A large motivation for the design of Junior Rank had very much to do with my own behaviors and attitudes while being a scholarship athlete in college. In retrospect, I was often guilty of not honoring Junior Rank’s Big 3 Character, Discipline, and Academic Excellence. Having lived this experience, I think it allows me to deliver a credible message to the young athletes of JuniorRank, in my earnest request for them to “do better”.

Y1: What's one lesson you've learned being around youth athletes?
Shaon: I have learned that positive reinforcement and direct one-on-one communication, can unlock otherwise dormant and seemingly unlimited potential, both in the sport they play and beyond.

Y1: What is your response to the claim that organizations like JuniorRank put too much pressure on youth athletes?
Shaon: Junior Rank is much more concerned with instruction than performance.  We want our event results to serve as a benchmark for young athletes to track their individual performance and improvement from one year to the next.

Y1: Being able to perform on the field is one thing, but can you tell us about how character training, development and academics are important to JuniorRank?
Shaon: It’s absolutely critical. At a young age these athletes are now making decisions about the kind of students, athletes and people they want to be. Junior Rank wants to provide the incentive to be exceptional in all three.

Y1: What advice do you have for parents who are helping their youth athlete deal with adversity?
Shaon: Recognize that in many instances, adversity is the very next stepping stone in the growth and development of your young athlete. Fixing every problem before it can occur, can sometimes do more harm than good.

Y1: What does a young athlete gain from an experience like Junior Rank?
Shaon: I think everyone benefits when a program is bold enough to value athletes beyond just their ability within the sport, especially when you don’t have to compromise exceptional athleticism. We like to think of Junior Rank like Duke Basketball….Great Players, Great Students, Great People.