A great read

Youngsters, hey even oldsters and middle-agers -- read the following, it's never too late:

Driven Young Man With a Basketball Mission
Daniel Libit
New York Times
March 19, 2010

De La Salle and Foreman High Schools battled for the 4A state basketball sectional semifinals March 10 in a packed Maywood gym, but in many ways, the most interesting action was unfolding in the north bleachers. There, two rows up from the floor, Daniel Poneman held court in his usual fashion.

Every few moments, Mr. Poneman stood up to greet someone he knew, and by the end of the evening, it seemed as if he had exchanged handshakes and hugs with half of those in attendance. The gym was one giant flowchart before him. Even as Mr. Poneman tracked the action, a recruiter from Purdue, a local basketball legend, and a former Foreman coach who has since moved to Niles North High School all passed — very noticed — before Mr. Poneman’s well-trained eyes.

“I really wouldn’t call him a scout,” said Nate Pomeday, an assistant coach at Oregon State. “I would call him more of a professional networker.”

Mr. Poneman, 18, and now, not quite a year after graduation from Evanston Township High School, puts none of this to waste. For four years now, he has used his preternatural ability to collect information and rub elbows to create a Web site and network relied upon by college coaches as an essential tool for recruiting Illinois players. And now, not quite a year after his high school graduation, he is weeks away from inaugurating a national Web site focused on appraising high school athletes, primarily for the benefit of college coaches.

Mr. Poneman works nearly without pause — skipping sleep two nights a week, he said, and living in a spartan bachelor pad in Lincoln Park. Yet none of it, so far, has made him much money. His Web site takes in some advertising from Google but is barely profitable. Even a showcase tournament he plans to host late this month will net only about $8,000. “My only expense is living,” Mr. Poneman said. “I don’t buy any luxuries, and I sacrifice everything else.”

Still, Mr. Poneman is building something he hopes will be more valuable over time: A network of people that, in Mr. Poneman’s view, have economic value over time.

“My goal is not to make as much money as possible now but to build as much capital as possible,” he said. “Eventually, I will be able to transfer that capital....”

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