Fans spend hours watching and reading about high school athletes on the internet hoping their favorite school signs the so-called “blue-chip” player to their team.

Thanks to Christian Hidalgo, the bug has hit Murfreesboro, but he has a different take on the whole process. Hidalgo runs the website, recuitreels.com, hoping to get mostly local student-athletes noticed by college coaches in several sports. He wanted to help create highlight videos for the future stars on that level.

“The most important thing for us is to help parents afford college,” Hidalgo said. He added the website focuses mostly on the next-tier of athlete, not necessary on the so-called “blue-chip” player that are seen on the well-known recruiting websites like rivals.com.

The website was created about a couple of years ago, mostly the focus is on the athletics in the Southeast. However, students and parents from all over the nation contact the website. Hidalgo hopes to expand the reach in the near future.

“We definitely want to be a national company,” he said.

When contacted by a prospective student or parents needing video to be shot of the athlete for a fee, Hidalgo has the Director of Video Services, Brian Reed, videotape the athlete in several situations, including game action and in the weight room. In most highlight films, each play shot consists of the entire team and it only follows the ball. However, in Reed’s case, he uses different techniques to solely focus on that athlete. Those include close-ups and tight shots by using spot shadowing on his equipment.

“Coaches want to see tight, close-up shots and they also want to see a variety of them and not the same play over and over,” Hidalgo said. Besides shooting game footage, each athlete also has an interview session and also has workout footage shot.

Besides getting their name out in the open, the students can also get advice for two athletes from the midstate that had professional experience, former Titans lineman Brad Hopkins and ex-Oakland High baseball star Jeremy Slayden.

Hopkins was a member of the team that advanced to the Super Bowl just over a decade ago, while Slayden led Oakland to a state championship during the same time period and also helped lead Georgia Tech to the College World Series. He also spent time with the Phillies

“It gives creditability to the website,” Hidalgo said.

Currently, Hopkins is a radio personally on 560 AM in Nashville, while Slayden lives in Atlanta, doing baseball instruction for younger players.

For more information go to recruitreels.com.