My mentorship experience was unlike many others as I had to switch gears midway through with the university, I started at because of their financial situation causing them to close their doors. I believe that this will help me in the end because it allowed me to gain a broader view of the sport world. I was able to see it from the sport and coach view, as well as, from the agent and administrative view. This I believe influence my personal development in the sport world the most. The aspect of my two mentorships that I related been able to relate most with my academics included the professional writing which I needed to use for my time with Darryl Greene. I was required to draft many emails and communications with teams around the world. The information I have put into practice writing for my many classes came in useful when doing this. I was under much closer supervision during my time at Ohio Valley University. While helping with the cross-country team, I was almost always with coach Brian Hesson. I would have a few assignments which I worked on off campus, but I was primarily with him during my hours. My time with Darryl Greene was all virtual. I would speak with Darryl Greene via phone calls and receive my assignments. This required me to have high self-drive to ensure I completed the assignments in a timely manner. These mentorship experiences have solidified in my mind that I do indeed want to work in a back-office type of role instead of as a head or assistant coach. While I enjoyed my time helping with the Ohio Valley university cross-country team, I enjoyed my time working with Darryl Greene and the various tasks he gave me more. I enjoyed doing research on the various basketball leagues and searching what teams would be a best fit for Darryl Greene’s client. Overall, I was pleased with what both mentorships offered me for my future career. I encourage future students to not go into the mentorship with a narrow mind and only focus on the sport in which they want to enter. Gaining experience across various sports is valuable. I was able to gain knowledge of intercollegiate athletics with my time at Ohio Valley University. Darryl Greene taught me about the many aspects that a sport agent has to navigate. Had I only focused on baseball I would have missed out on these valuable resources. Brian Hesson Darryl Greene
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Darryl Greene and I took the time today to discuss my intermediate and long-term goals of my career. We had discussed my short-term goals at the start of the mentorship. My short-term goals focused primarily on what I could take and learn from my upcoming eighty hours communicating and working with Darryl Greene in the many aspects of his career. My mid and long-term goals are all focused more on my career trajectory into professional baseball and the best steps on how to get there. Similarly, to what my previous mentor, Brian Hesson, said, Darryl Greene informed me to look for all opportunities that I can in order to get my foot in the door. Another suggestion which Darryl Greene gave me was to keep my focus broad but still focused. He told me that I had my goal narrowed down well to fit this mold. I knew that I wanted to try and break in with a financial sector of the sport business, but I was keeping it broad for what type of sport finance I would target. For me this could be entering into ticket sales, organizational financial planning, player salaries, or any other financial side of baseball. I believe the knowledge and advice I have gained from both Brian Hesson and Darryl Greene will help me immensely now and in the future.
In the event that the Scotts grant for the baseball field would not have worked for the needs of the city of Inkster, I also wanted to know what we would need to do if we had to take the community service route. I explored youtube and other various internet sources to see what the best strategies are to help maintain a baseball field. First, all fields should have an assortment of raking systems. The field should have a hand-held rake to take care of the areas around the bases and pitcher’s mound. Additionally, it is often suggested to have a large rake to attach to a four-wheeler to rake the entire infield. Secondly, it was also encouraged to keep additional sand/dirt available to fix any holes or divots that may arise from the continuous play on the field. So far through this assignment I have learned that the determination of how to decide how to fix the baseball fields depended greatly on resources. For the city of Inkster, Darryl Greene said that the budget was not large. Because of this the use of the Scotts grant is the best option for updating the baseball fields within the city’s parks. The grant can award up to $50,000 dollars to the winners. This would make a great impact on the baseball fields in Inkster. Photo Credit: teamspeedkills.com One aspect that is important for individuals in sports is how to find the best information or resources to help better programs or facilities that you are in charge of. As I have discussed before, Darryl Greene is the Parks and Rec director for the city of Inkster, Michigan. He had discussed with me early on in my mentorship that he along with the city are planning on bringing back little league baseball for the youth in the area. In order to do this the baseball fields at the parks in Inkster need to be updated and brought back to playable conditions. I had two ideas in mind to help Darryl Greene accomplish this. The first idea I had was to find a suitable baseball field update grant. The second idea was to contact local schools to see if they would be interested in a community service activity where they would help bring the fields back to a playable condition. I was able to find an exciting grant opportunity that Darryl Greene has decided to pursue with the city of Inkster. The grant is offered through the MLB partner Scotts landscaping. The grant will refurbish the infield, build a new pitching mound, and more. I am excited to see if the city of Inkster will be selected as one of the four recipients of this grant. Photo Credit: redsoxfoundation.org I worked on putting together the reports that Darryl Greene suggested I put together for the athletes that I believed were ready for the NBA or best suited to go into one of the many professional leagues around the world such as Canada, Mexico, Germany, etc. There were athletes that were easy to decide if they would be entering the NBA. For example, Michigan States Max Christie is projected to be picked in the upcoming 2022 NBA draft. However, there are other athletes that could possibly play in the NBA or G-league but have not had as much attention. One example of this kind of athlete is division 2 All-American Patrick Cartier from Hillsdale University. Patrick has the size and skill level to compete at the next level but lacks much of the notoriety being from a division 2 school. This is where the extra awards such as an All-American recognition can help sell a player to a professional team. This is exactly what the reports is meant to do for Darryl Greene. The reports main focus is to touch on important facts and awards that the players have received. Recognitions such as conference player of the week, conference player of the year, and conference male athlete of the year are just examples of some of the recognitions that can put an athlete above the competition. Photo Credit: NCAA.org
I spent this day finishing up my research on collegiate division one basketball players that were from Michigan but did not attend a Michigan university or college. Darryl Greene said that it is nice to have representation from within the same state that an athlete grew up in. One athlete that stood out during this research was Oakland University’s Jamal Cain. At the time of the research Jamal was averaging a double-double. Darryl Greene seemed excited about Jamal when I discussed his current statistics. My mentorship experience has been a bumpy ride as I had to switch my roles partway through my mentorship. I had to quickly change and adapt my working style to an entirely new working experience. I had originally been working as an assistant with Ohio Valley University’s cross-country and track teams. Here I was learning what it was like to be a coach in a collegiate setting. Unfortunately, the university had to shut down. This saw me transition into a mentorship with Darryl Greene. Here I have been working more from an athletic agent perspective. Though this switch has not been ideal I believe it has worked best for my development in sports. It has allowed me to gain experience in two vastly different aspects of the sport world. Photo Credit: goldengrizzlies.com
The original assignment required me to look at teams in the state of Michigan. The original teams I was to look at were division one teams but I expanded my search to also include division two schools. The next step that Darryl Greene gave me was to begin looking at collegiate basketball players who were from Michigan. For this I have been looking at only division one players. For many of the players I have only looked at senior basketball players. However, for the Michigan athletes I have expanded my list to include juniors and seniors. Darryl Greene will be able to see if there are any seniors that he can contact for the upcoming professional seasons and will be able to use the list of Juniors to create a contact list for the following season.
My communication at direction with Darryl Greene has been solid and beneficial for my direction with the mentorship. I generally speak with Mr. Greene at the start of each week. During this time, we speak about what I have done the previous week and he then gives me direction for the following week. He also informs me of how what I am doing is giving me experience in different areas of how a sport agent does a job. I have found this experience to be enjoyable and interesting. I spent my time today finding the Division 2 All-American list for basketball. I was able to find it after searching many websites. Two of the Division 2 basketball All-Americans come from universities in the state of Michigan. These two players are Patrick Cartier form Hillsdale University and Owen White from Michigan Tech University. I believe that both of these players would be capable of competing at the next level. They may need to first develop more in the G-League but would be able to adjust to the NBA setting. Patrick Cartier of Hillsdale is currently average 22.4 points per game. The stat that stands out the most about Cartier’s season is that he is shooting 63.6% from the field. Owen White is averaging a solid 16.9 points per game. The other aspect of these two players that gives them an edge is their size. Cartier stands at 6’8 and White stands at 6’6. This is excellent size to be able to translate over into a professional basketball league. I am looking forward to the next time that I speak with Darryl Greene to see if he feels the same way I do about these two division 2 All-American athletes.
I was able to speak with Darryl Greene today about what the next steps will be for how I need to use my excel sheet. Darryl new about some of the players that I had on my lists. I was able to inform him of a player for Detroit Mercy that was on the radar of some of the NBA teams. On my original assignment Darryl Greene wanted players from division one teams. I added the division two tabs for extra names that Mr. Greene can use. I asked him for direction on being able to see which of these players would be good for the NBA or a foreign league. Mr. Greene asked me to look into Division two all American lists to help judge which of these players would be good for the NBA. This was interesting to me because I was under the assumption that the NBA scouts would judge the player only on how the player is in the game. However, Darryl Greene showed me that for division two players the NBA scouts and teams want to see the player accolades. The different aspects that help players stand out to scouts and teams has been quite interesting to learn about.
I focused on a few separate aspects of for the excel sheet to help me analyze the basketball players in Michigan that would likely be leaving for the NBA draft or who would be candidates to join a foreign league like the Euroleague, Canadian league, or other professional basketball league. The excel spreadsheet currently includes three separate tabs. One tab is for NBA caliber players, one if for division 1, and another for division 2 teams. For each page I made columns for team/player name, position, height, points per game, assists per game, rebounds per game, and field goal percentages. These basic stats will give me an overview of the type of player and their effectiveness at their given level of play. Darryl Greene requested that I look at teams from Michigan first. I was unaware of the amount of division one schools in the state of Michigan. I learned that there are seven division one teams and ten division two teams. I also learned that players that are still in college are not allowed to declare for the NBA draft unless it is sixty days away or closer to the NBA draft. To help find what players were likely to enter the NBA draft I reviewed multiple mock drafts for the 2022 NBA draft.
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AuthorWelcome to my blog! My name is Mitchell Morris and this blog will reflect on my experiences through my mentorship program. These will reflect on what I am doing, what I have learned, my different responsibilities, and much more. Enjoy these many reflections through my 200 hour mentorship. Mentor Time Sheet
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