Youth sports program cataloging and rating system

Abstract

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method of cataloging youth sports is provided that includes: collecting youth sports data, which collecting includes automated electronic searching of the Internet for the youth sports data, and storing the collected youth sports data in at least one data storage device; classifying the collected youth sports data, which classifying includes filtering and analyzing the collected data, and populating portions of the collected data into one or more predetermined candidate profiles; evaluating the one or more candidate profiles relative to a threshold, wherein each of the one or more candidate profiles that satisfy the threshold are identified as a validated profile; and publishing the one or more validated profiles in a web-based application accessible over the Internet.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of cataloging youth sport programs, comprising:
 analyzing youth sports program data collected from a plurality of different data sources on the Internet to identify a plurality of youth sport programs, the analyzing including classifying the collected youth sport program data to determine a subset of related youth sport program data, and verifying one or more respective youth sport programs using the subset of related youth sport program data;   producing a validated youth sport program profile for at least some verified youth sport programs, the validated youth sport program profile including a plurality of program specific parameters for the respective verified youth sport program, the program specific parameters including one or more of a name, a sport type, a location, or one or more contact data for the respective verified youth sport program; and   publishing the one or more validated youth sport program profiles in a web-based application accessible over the Internet.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of producing a validated youth sport program profile includes validating the youth sports program based on predetermined criteria. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of publishing the one or more validated profiles in a web-based application includes publishing a plurality of validated profiles, wherein at least one said validated profile has a first said sport type, and at least one other said validated profile has a second said sport type, wherein the first said sport type is different from the second said sport type. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the analyzing step includes determining a value for each of a plurality of standardized parameters for the respective verified youth sport program. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the plurality of standardized parameters includes one or more of a coaches rating parameter, a youth sport program focus parameter representative of respective emphasis levels of player participation fun, player skill development, and competition for the identified youth sport program, or a youth sport program rating parameter. 
     
     
         6 . A method of cataloging youth sport programs, comprising:
 analyzing youth sport program data collected from a plurality of different data sources on the Internet to identify a plurality of youth sport programs, the identification of each said youth sport program including determining a plurality of program specific parameters for the respective youth sport program, the program specific parameters including one or more of a name, a sport type, a location, or one or more contact data for the respective identified youth sport program;   analyzing the collected data associated with the identified youth sport program to determine a value for each of a plurality of standardized parameters for the identified youth sport program;   populating a youth sport program profile for each identified youth sport program with the plurality of program specific parameters for that said youth sport program and the respective value for each of the plurality of standardized parameters for that said youth sport program; and   publishing the populated youth sport program profiles in a web-based application accessible over the Internet.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the plurality of standardized parameters for the identified youth sport program includes a standardized coaches parameter. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the value for the standardized coaches parameter is based one or more coach parameters, the coach parameters including a minimum age of a coach identified with the youth sport program, a medical certification of the coach, a coaching experience value for the coach representative of an amount of time the coach has coached the youth sport program sport type, a playing experience value for the coach representative of an amount of time the coach has played the youth sport program sport type, a coaching certification of the coach for the youth sport program sport type, or a background check of the coach. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the plurality of standardized parameters for the identified youth sport program includes at least one of a youth sport program focus parameter representative of respective emphasis levels of player participation fun, player skill development, and competition for the identified youth sport program, a cost to participate in the identified youth sport program, or a size of the identified youth sport program, the size being representative of a number of teams in the identified youth sport program. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the step of publishing the populated youth sport program profiles in the web-based application includes publishing a plurality of populated youth sport program profiles, wherein at least one said populated youth sports program profile has a first said sport type, and at least one other said populated youth sports program profile has a second said sport type, wherein the first said sport type is different from the second said sport type. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the plurality of standardized parameters for each identified youth sport program includes a standardized coaches parameter, and the standardized coaches parameter for each identified youth sport program is in a standardized format that is substantially the same for each different youth sport program sport type. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the step of publishing the plurality of populated youth sport program profiles includes grouping regionally related youth sport program profiles. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the grouping of regionally related youth sport program profiles includes youth sport programs having different youth sport program sport types. 
     
     
         14 . A method of cataloging youth sport programs, comprising:
 (a) analyzing youth sports program data collected from a plurality of different data sources on the Internet to identify a plurality of youth sport programs, the analyzing including classifying the collected youth sport program data to determine a subset of related youth sport program data;   (b) analyzing the subset of related youth sport program data to identify and validate one or more respective youth sport programs;   (c) for each respective youth sports program validated, producing a validated youth sport program profile for that respective validated youth sport program, the validated youth sport program profile including a name, a sport type, a location, and a contact data for the validated youth sport program;   (d) publishing each validated youth sport program profile in a web-based application accessible over the Internet;   (e) periodically performing step (a) again to produce an updated subset of related youth sport program data; and   (f) updating each validated youth sport program profile using the updated subset of related youth sport program data, the updating including editing the respective validated youth sport program profile to reflect any change in the profile determined from the updated subset of related youth sport program data.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the updating step includes analyzing the updated subset of related youth sport program data to validate the respective youth sport program, and in instances wherein the respective youth sports program cannot be validated, removing the published validated youth sport program profile of the respective youth sports program from the web-based application accessible over the Internet. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the step of analyzing the subset of related youth sport program data includes determining a value for each of a plurality of standardized parameters for each validated youth sport program. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the plurality of standardized parameters includes one or more of a coaches rating parameter, a youth sport program focus parameter representative of respective emphasis levels of player participation fun, player skill development, and competition for the identified youth sport program, or a youth sport program rating parameter.