Streamline Athletes

A new app helps match track and cross-country athletes with post-secondary programs in Canada and the U.S.

For Alexandre Paré, the transition from high school to post-secondary was easy. He grew up in Quebec, applied to Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business and got in. He drove across the country and joined the track and field team as a walk-on athlete competing in the 800 and 1,500 metres. But Paré was in a serious car accident in 2013 before starting his fourth year at sfu. He took a year off to recover and eventually returned to school, but his competitive track career was over.

Wanting to stay connected to the team, Paré volunteered to recruit new athletes. He quickly learned that for most graduating high-school athletes, finding the right university or college team was anything but easy. Many considered only a handful of schools, because they weren’t aware of all their options. At the same time, the sfu coach fielded dozens of enquiries from potential athletes, some of whom didn’t meet the university’s academic or athletic standards, or who were interested in programs the school didn’t offer. “There was such a huge gap,” Paré says.

So he and his friend Brett Montrose developed an online platform to connect high-school track and field and cross-country athletes from around the world with post-secondary programs in Canada and the United States. Streamline Athletes was incorporated in 2017 and the software launched in 2019. By then, the Vancouver-based company had partnered with every provincial sport organization for track and field and cross country in Canada. Streamline Athletes is looking into American partnerships, but is focused on helping Canadian athletes and schools.

High-school students can create a free profile and enter their high-school grades and personal best performances (which are verified by staff ). They can then search more than 1,500 college and university programs in the ccaa, naia, ncaa, njcaa and U Sports. Athletes can identify programs they are eligible for based on their grades and performances, and then filter by factors such as tuition, availability of financial aid and academic programs. Athletes can reach out to two schools for free, or pay $135 a year to contact as many coaches as they want and receive support from staff.

Avery Pearson, a mid-distance Grade 12 athlete from Meadow Lake, Sask., says Streamline Athletes has made researching schools less stressful. She has a paid plan and appreciates feedback on what schools might be good fits for her and advice on how to talk to coaches.

“I don’t always know how to respond or reach out with an email, and they can help with the structure of emails that are appropriate,” she says.

This summer, there were about 1,000 athletes signed up with Streamline Athletes. Roughly a third were Canadian, the rest mostly from the U.S. Paré says coaches are more likely to respond to enquiries from people reaching out via Streamline Athletes because they know the athletes meet their programs’ academic and athletic requirements.

He says just f ive per cent of athletes using the online platform have paid plans and that most of the company’s revenue comes from the colleges and universities that pay to submit custom recruiting requests. The Universit y of Saskatchewan was one of the f irst institutions to sign up with Streamline Athletes. Jason Reindl, the head coach for the school ’s running programs, said the platform makes it faster and more eff icient to identif y athletes who will be a good f it for his teams. “As track and f ield/cross country, we don’t get the spotlight that the court sports and football and hockey get , so having a company t hat ’s devoted to at hlet ics is a breat h of fresh air,” Reindl says. “When I had to explain to my boss why we were going to pay for this, he thought it was a no-brainer.”

While Streamline Athletes helps narrow down schools based on quantifiable factors, Paré warns it doesn’t replace the need for athletes to talk with coaches. “It is quite important to really feel connected with a coach,” Paré says. “That’s the work that both coaches and athletes have to be doing that is beyond what we do.”

Andrea Hill is a marathon runner and acting managing editor of the Phoenix newspaper

Saskatoon Star