As a young sports fan, Alex Kline read Sports Illustrated Kids. But he always explored the “big, grown-up” Sports Illustrated, reading it whenever he got the chance.

In December 2011, Sports Illustrated ran a five-page spread on the freshman broadcast and digital journalism major and his college basketball recruiting website, The Recruit Scoop.

“It wasn’t just a little blurb,” Kline said. “That’s when it really started to catch on. And from there it led to ‘The Today Show’ and The New York Times and other things.”

Most recently, Forbes magazine put Kline on its “30 under 30” sports list, grouping him with LeBron James, Robert Griffin III and Usain Bolt. Almost comparable to his fellow 2012 “30 under 30” young adults is the lineup of contacts Kline has made, including cell phone numbers for the nation’s top recruits. His name is recognized when he calls college basketball coaches.

Kline’s addition to the list came as a result of the success of The Recruit Scoop. Kline has also experienced fundraising credibility with the Mary Kline Classic all-star game, a benefit game to raise money for cancer research.

As high school freshmen, Kline and a friend started a pop culture website. But when Kline became manager for the basketball team, he wanted to find a way to tie together basketball and his website.

“I began gaining an interest for the whole recruiting process, especially since we’d start to get more hits for it,” he said.

Near the end of Kline’s sophomore year, his pop culture website, Box of M.E.S.S. (music, entertainment, sports and style), became The Recruit Scoop. It is now a branch of Rivals.com, a college sports section of Yahoo! Sports.

One of the first players Kline ever covered is still the best he’s seen. Former Duke point guard and No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft Kyrie Irving went to St. Patrick High School, an hour away from Kline’s home near Pennington, N.J. Kline kept up with Irving at the high school and continued covering him through his recruitment process.

But what sets The Recruit Scoop apart from other recruiting websites is Kline’s use of social media. He is rarely found away from his iPhone, constantly texting, tweeting or Facebook-ing recruits. The website’s Twitter account, @TheRecruitScoop, has more than 26,000 followers. Recently, fake Twitter accounts have popped up for both The Recruit Scoop and Kline himself.

Kline’s contact with college teams mainly runs through the assistant coaches, and when those assistants are hired elsewhere, he uses his contacts to strengthen relationships with new schools. Two head coaches Kline knows well are University of Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Shaka Smart.

Kline said he finds it easy to get caught up in the recruiting process, and tries to remind players to have fun playing basketball and stay humble.

That was part of the motivation behind Kline founding the Mary Kline Classic all-star event, a memorial basketball game that pays tribute to his late mother. The event allows Kline to connect with recruits and raise money for cancer.

After his mother lost her battle with cancer when Kline was 10 years old, he struggled to find a way to honor her. But as he gained more clout with the basketball world, he understood a way to keep her memory alive.

“It’s not just an all-star game, we’re playing for cancer research,” he said. “I just want to do something special like that because I think the high school players should be humbled by it.”

The first Mary Kline Classic was in 2011, when Kline fell short of his $10,000 goal for the National Brain Tumor Society. Last year, he nearly tripled the money raised in 2011, exceeding $20,000 with more than 50 top recruits and 50 media outlets in attendance.

This year, Kline moved the event to a larger gymnasium to make room for spectators and commits from schools including the University of Kansas, University of Kentucky and Syracuse University. Four months away, the 2013 Classic is on pace to surpass the last two years combined.

“I’m trying to get on a national stage, where maybe we can play in an NBA arena,” Kline said. “Every year have the best players possible, raise as much money possible, but to always keep the same attitude and same message behind it.”

He wants to draw a distinction from the McDonald’s All-American game, aiming for the same talent but more low key, and leave an impression on the basketball players and National Brain Tumor Society.

It’s the same attitude he takes to his time at SU. Kline admits his high school grades weren’t really “Newhouse-esque,” but his portfolio of experience was valuable.

Still, his goal isn’t to expand his website or to win awards.

“My ultimate goal with Syracuse is to really leave a legacy,” Kline said. “Whatever that’ll be, I just want to leave a legacy of something different, something important. I want to change lives.”

Uncertain about his professional future, he plans to run the website through college, and dreams of becoming an ESPN recruiting analyst like Andy Katz.

He wants to keep charity involved with basketball and grow the Mary Kline Classic. He’s also thought about jobs in the NBA’s outreach group, NBA Cares.

Said Kline: “At the end of the day, I still want to stay involved with basketball. That’s my passion.”

Published on February 11, 2013 at 11:53 pm

Contact Boomer: egdangel@syr.edu