Talent Scout

As a high school catcher and infielder recruited by major universities, Tom Koerick had no idea how to market himself.

With help from his father, the Philadelphia-area native ended up making a VHS videotape of his highlights to send to college coaches. On a recruiting trip to Duke University, Koerick noticed stacks of tapes in a bookcase against the wall. The coach admitted that he hadn’t watched more than half because he didn’t have time and, anyway, most were too long to begin with.

Koerick didn’t forget. After getting a full ride to Villanova University and playing four years of minor league baseball, Koerick landed a job in the Seattle area. In 2001, he launched a business aimed at solving the problem he had encountered as a young athlete. He sold it in 2016 and then bought it back during the pandemic.

Today, that business — SkillShow — is a professional video company that services sporting events and teams, primarily in the youth sports and college recruiting sector. Clients have included the MLB Network, Baseball America, Nike, Under Armour, and football combines and camps. SkillShow filmed more than 300 events nationwide last year and internationally in the Czech Republic, Barcelona, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Puerto Rico. 

Koerick has taken a slow-growth approach so far — most business comes via word of mouth from top-level clients — but says the company is poised to “take off.” As a private company SkillShow doesn’t disclose revenue, but Koerick says sales could grow five-fold in coming years. It has six full-time employees and about 500 contractors across the country who film events. It is privately financed and debt free, though Koerick admits he’s thought about taking outside investment.

“We’ve been very manual-labor intensive and that’s a high-cost model and it’s always slowed us,” he says. “But we’re really primed now for technology and video is the biggest demand on the internet. It’s the biggest demand for recruiting. And now, more than ever, we are being sought after by organizations that need video, and we have the customer base.”

It’s worth noting that SkillShow doesn’t make money based on athletic success. It merely provides a vehicle to connect potential athletes with organizations.

Koerick recently spoke at a seminar for USA Baseball — the national governing body for organized baseball in the U.S. — and Next College Student Athlete, a for-profit organization that connects youth athletes with college coaches. He left convinced that there’s room for measurable growth.

“As much as (potential competitors have) fantastic technology, there’s major differences in quality, usefulness, how they’re used and how they differ from us,” he says. “I was better able to understand our niche.”