In an open 2,000-square foot, second story Pine Ave. office dotted with computers, sports banners, couches, even a nine-foot basketball hoop, a Long Beach native named Steve Hansen spends two weeks a month working on his creation that well could turn out to be the latest Internet phenomenon.

The other two weeks he's at his office in New York where he labors on the same intriguing venture in which he's in partnership with Major League Baseball Advanced Media-mlb.com - the powerful Hollywood talent company, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and such renowned athletes as LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Ryan Howard and Jennie Finch.

It's called Weplay, as in Weplay.com., and Hansen, a 1974 Wilson High graduate who grew up in Naples and attended Rogers Middle School, envisions that one day the only youth sports community website that connects players, parents, coaches and even professional athletes will become as imperative a part of the online social scene as MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Read on...

Doug Krikorian

04/23/2009

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