Kicking it: media startup targets adult co-ed sports.

• Author: Schley, Stewart
• Position: PlayCoed.com - Company overview

There are two strategies for blasting a home run in kickball, says Steven Martin, a former auto industry advertising manager who returned to Colorado a few years ago after working in Dallas.

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One relies on aim: Kick the ball hard on the ground and power it through an outfield gap. The other is all about deception: Lure the outfielders to play shallow--usually by feigning a lack of power in a previous plate appearance--and then surprise the defenders by booting a towering drive over their heads. That'll teach 'em.

Martin is one of a growing number of active adults who are reprising a game you played during recess back in fourth grade--you know, where you can get base runners out by throwing a red rubber ball at them. During summer, ball fields at the city of Cuernavaca Park were packed with kickball teams made up of single young adults looking for recreational fun mixed in with a little social networking and chased with an occasional beverage or two.

Martin has a special interest in the game and its surrounding social environment. The 3-year-old Denver company he works for is building an advertiser-supported media business around helping people find places to play kickball, dodgeball, flag football and an assortment of year-round sports. The business notion is that somewhere within the lifestyle traits of young adults who like to play ball and meet friends on a Wednesday night, there's money to be made.

The main forum is PlayCoed.com, an Internet portal that aims to be to recreational sports what News Corp.'s prolific MySpace.com is to social networking. On the PlayCoed website (www.playcoed.com), local recreational athletes post profiles, follow their league standings, discover which teams have available openings and generally keep track of their recreational sports lives via a do-it-all online platform.

PlayCoed started in Denver, where it now has close to 15,000 local members, and has branched out to a handful of other markets including Miami and Phoenix. The Denver PlayCoed portal is a successor to what used to be called the Denver Sport and Social Club, a recreational sport website that was shut down by its owner Zebra Inc. in 1999.

On a Tuesday afternoon in late July, Martin is sharing his tips about kickball success and online marketing from a casually appointed office near the restaurant Lola in Denver's Highlands neighborhood. The workplace exudes a pleasant...