Former Viking Chad Greenway's next project? Helping potential college stars get recruited

May 21—MITCHELL — It was once difficult for a young, high school athlete from a small, rural town to get noticed or recognized for a potential college or professional career.

Chad Greenway is proof it can be done and he's working to make sure the next generation of top athletes gets the chance to break through. In the latest of his

post-playing career business ventures

, he's become a consultant with Signing Day Sports, which is a digital platform that provides athletes a place to provide information to coaches and recruiters.

Well before Greenway was a first-round pick out of the University of Iowa or was a Pro Bowl linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings, he was a burgeoning multi-sport athlete who wanted to play college sports, but didn't know where or how that was going to happen.

When Greenway was in the process of trying to get colleges to notice him, he had to put together football clips on a VHS tape that had to be mailed to different schools. Signing Day Sports, based in Arizona, is this generation's version of that process, Greenway said, but with much more detail.

Prior to Greenway getting his chance in 2001, he felt "no one wanted to recruit him."

"The recruiting barrier back then was a lot different than it is now so back in 2001, the reality was being a nine-man football player in the middle of South Dakota was hard for people to believe that a Division 1 athlete was coming from an area like that," Greenway said. "I think the Midwest, especially the flyover states, get overlooked when it comes to athletic talent. A lot of the kids I played with growing up could have been college athletes but they ended up not being that because they didn't get recruited."

A digital platform where an athlete can upload all of their information and highlights helps bridge the gaps that mileage and location can create, Greenway said, allowing athletes in small towns and small communities to be recruited, recognized and discovered by coaches and recruiters all across the country.

Signing Day Sports launched in late 2020, in hopes to stand apart from other platforms and video services by offering a wide range of advanced video, metric and filtration features. Greenway was brought on as an consultant earlier this year, as he loved the message towards younger athletes and what they ultimately wanted to produce.

"I love the message around the platform," Greenway said. "It's clearly a for-profit business, but at the same time, we're trying to do things the right way. We want to connect kids to colleges and colleges to kids and do it the best way possible."

The app also allows the athlete to go through an interview process where they can answer a series of questions so coaches and recruiters can get a sense of who the athlete is and how they can fit in their program.

As of now, the app is open to football, baseball, softball and soccer players. Signing Day Sports is continuing to add as many sports as possible and have already notched over 100,000 members dating back to this past April. The program has made headway by making connections with high school coaches, which has systems to help them organize their roster and easily communicate key information to college coaches.

Greenway believes the more personable a prospect is on their profile, the higher chance they have of being noticed and recruited.

"I love it because it helps both sides," Greenway said. "With colleges, especially under-budgeted colleges like lower level Division II and NAIA schools, they want to make recruiting easier because they only have so many dollars to spend. If you can keep coaches off the roads and in their offices looking at profiles and really doing side-by-side comparisons, it's really interesting and effective."