GROVE CITY — Samantha Weber was a standout soccer player at Freeport High School and played for a nationally ranked club soccer team that traveled all over the country.

One of her teammates on the Regional Olympic Development Team was Crystal Dunn, who went on to the University of North Carolina and was a member of the United States U-20 World Cup champion soccer team.

Weber played in college showcase tournaments up and down the East Coast, but always found it difficult to connect with any of the hundreds of college coaches and scouts in attendance.

By her senior year with the Yellowjackets, she had few college offers.

“I spent a lot of money trying to get recruited,” Weber said. “And it never happened for me.”

Weber was one of many youth soccer players who fell through the cracks of a broken college recruiting process.

Weber, now a senior at Grove City College, is hoping to change that with a business venture she has launched with the help of AlphaLab, a Pittsburgh-based company that helps innovative technology startups launch quickly and successfully.

She developed an application called ProfilePasser that connects soccer players with college coaches at showcase tournaments and events easily and efficiently.

“My experience getting recruited is why I started this company,” Weber said. “Everyone knows the recruiting process has problems.”

Weber first pitched her idea to her sister, Alexa Andrzejewski, while visiting her in San Francisco.

Andrzejewski knows a little something about starting a business. She founded Foodspotting, which says on its website that it is “a visual guide to good food and where to find it.” Instead of reviewing restaurants, the user can recommend great dishes and see what others recommend.

Andrzejewski just sold the company for $10 million.

Her sister loved Weber’s idea for ProfilePasser.

“I pitched her ideas before and she wasn’t crazy about them,” Weber said. “This one she said, ‘You know, you actually may be on to something.’”

Weber believes the app solves a big problem. Soccer coaches receive hundred of emails from high school players every day and have to weed through them. Often, Weber said, it’s easier to push “delete” than to read through all of the messages they receive.

ProfilePasser hopes to streamline that process. Players can create their profile on the app, including basic contact information, along with a summary of their academic and athletic history. Athletes can highlight their stats, school, GPA and SAT scores, and then use the app to “check-in” at a showcase or event where they can share their information with relevant college coaches.

Weber said players will also be able to upload and share highlight videos. She also hopes to expand the app to other sports as well. As of now, the app is only for soccer.

Coaches also check-in at events and can do advance searches to find just the player they are looking for.

“If a coach goes to a showcase tournament and says, ‘OK, I’m looking for a midfielder with a GPA between 3.5 and 4.0 who players forward from Pittsburgh, he or she can do a search and see the players who are there who meet those prerequisites,” Weber said. “It’s really easy for coaches to go right to what they want.”

The app is already generating a buzz among college coaches. ProfilePasser has done extensive market research and spoken with colleges such as Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne, George Washington University, and Geneva.

Geneva College men’s soccer coach Caleb Musselman is a big fan of the app. He is one of the coaches testing it for use.

“The first benefit is the immediacy it brings to player identification,” Musselman said. “At any point I can find out about a specific player without leafing through a book. Even the most organized showcase packet falls short of the effectiveness of ProfilePasser.”

Musselman said he believes the ProfilePasser app is the wave of the future.

“Honestly, I can’t wait to use it. I have spoken with my staff and we all believe it could be something that is used on a national scale in a few years,” he said. “Everything is going mobile. It is only a matter of time before recruiting takes the turn. ProfilePasser is ahead of the pack.”

AlphaLab thought the same. It gave Weber $25,000 in investment capital, office space on Pittsburgh’s South Side and mentorship and business support.

ProfilePasser was one of nine startups chosen from more than 100 by AlphaLab.

At the end of the 20-week startup period, Weber will present her company at the AlphaLab demo day to investors and media from around the country.

“I’ve met with a lot of college coaches in the area and they think this solves a real problem,” Weber said. “Coaches are missing talented players and this will help make sure what happened to me won’t happen to someone else.”

If any high school soccer players are interested in testing ProfilePasser in the coming weeks, they can sign up to be put on the waitlist at www.profilepasser.com