Founder of West Michigan All Star continues to advance high school sports

In March 2010, Rapid Growth profiled Ryan Vaughn, founder of the high school athletic blog, West Michigan All Stars. Since that time, Vaughn and his team of bloggers have told hundreds of stories about high school athletes and their hits, dunks, scores and many other accomplishments.  

Vaughn also has made his share of moves too, primarily business pivots as he works to create a national network of high school sports sites.

According to Vaughn, he knew he "needed to grow beyond West Michigan All Stars," but he also needed a different business model.  

The first step in this process came when he was accepted in the Momentum-MI program with his proposal to develop the Varsity News Network (VNN), a national network of high school sports blogs.

Vaughn says the Momentum program gave him "an excuse to go all-in," and adds that he is not sure VNN would be where it is at today without the connections and mentorship that Momentum provided.

Although still in the early stages with VNN, "we have been successfully able to get schools to generate content, albeit a time-heavy approach," he says.  

Currently, there are eight schools participating and all of the sites are generating a a great deal of traffic. Vaughn also expects to add several more schools in the upcoming months as he continues to meet with school officials, athletic departments, booster clubs and journalism departments.

Looking forward to the next 12 months, Vaughn sees VNN growing rapidly. He expects strides in being more efficient in customer acquisition and with his educational efforts. "There's a disconnect," he says, at many high schools between the primarily print orientation of high school journalism and the digital world where VNN and other news organizations are operating.

To learn more about VNN you can visit their site here.

Source: Ryan Vaughn, VNN
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor