Undiscovered Showcase a basketball ‘matchmaking’ event for unsigned seniors

CHICAGO (WGN) — When he was a high school senior at Evanston Township in 2009, Daniel Poneman wanted to earn some extra cash.

He had several basketball contacts from running a scouting website and thought up an event where the top unsigned high school seniors could show their talents in front of dozens of college coaches. He would charge each coach and player $100 to participate.

“I started inviting players and no one had any money to pay for the event,” Poneman recalled.

So Poneman pivoted. He made the event a non-profit through local donors and sponsors, and for the last 16 years the Undiscovered Showcase has helped scores of high school hoopers continue their playing career and education.

“It’s pretty much like a matchmaking event,” said Poneman, who works fulltime as a basketball agent.

This year’s event was held on Saturday at Mount Carmel High School. He said they average 200 participants per year with about 75-80 college coaches, mostly from smaller schools like South Suburban College and Kennedy King, but about 50 of those kids will leave the event with at least one scholarship offer.

“After these games, you’ll see coaches pulling kids off the court saying, ‘Hey, we want to offer you a scholarship,’” Poneman said. “There are kids that are going to walk in here not knowing what’s going to happen to their future, having no scholarship offers, and they are going to leave with 10 offers to choose from, where they want to go play in college.

“There are some kids that will leave with one scholarship offer, and that one offer is going to be that turning point in their life that will give them the opportunity to get a free education, to play college basketball. What’s cool is some of these coaches here played in the event 15 years ago, got a scholarship, graduated, became a coach and now they are back recruiting for their schools. It’s become a full circle community event.”