Today's interviewee is Andre Wise, co-founder of TYGTAL Exposure & Sports Consulting, a scouting service and consulting company for student-athletes looking to play college sports and their parents. Wise is a former football player at Baldwin High and Tennessee Wesleyan and assistant coach at Hancock Central. He started TYGTAL in 2010 and has worked with more than 800 student-athletes who went on to make college rosters in multiple sports. Among those are NFL players Carl Lawson and Josh Dobbs.
Andre Wise, college football recruiting consultant
1. How did you get started in scouting? "When I came back to Milledgeville from college, I started helping in the rec department. I've always wanted to give back to kids and get them off the streets and build character. I've also been big on that sort of thing. So I was coaching and sponsoring rec ball teams. I started a program called the Baldwin Bulldogs. In 2005, Baldwin [High] ended up going to the Georgia Dome and playing Northside [of Warner Robins] in the semifinals, and almost everybody on that [Baldwin] team came out of my program. We taught fundamentals first. There were some kids out of my youth organization from Sparta in Hancock County and they wanted to transfer to Baldwin, and I got a call from Hancock Central's athletic director, and he said we'd rather just bring you to Hancock. So that's how I became offensive coordinator at Hancock. I was there for four years. We went 1-9 the first year [actually 1-8-1], and then my second year we beat ELCA in the playoffs [for Hancock Central's first playoff win in school history]. Hancock was a poor-type county, and I was seeing kids say they wanted to go to college but didn't have anybody to help them or take them to camps or make phone calls for them. In 2009, my son became a freshman in high school, and I decided to just be a daddy and step back from coaching, but I kept seeing kids who were mistreated or not educated about the recruiting process. That's when I started TYGTAL, to help kids get in school because as a coach and parent and former player, I'd seen the whole nine yards. The idea was to look at it as a parent and athlete and what they go through and put that all together." [Wise's son DeAndre was an offensive lineman at Alpharetta and Indiana State.]
2. Companies such as yours have critics who say that parents don't need to pay experts to help their kids get recruited, that they can do this on their own. What's your response to that? "I agree about recruiting services. Parents do not need to pay a recruiting service to help get their kids exposed because most recruiting services only put together highlight film and email blast the film to different colleges all over the country and hope that the film will speak for the athlete. We believe that parents should hire sports-consulting companies because they will become advocates and educate the parent about the entire recruiting process from eligibility, character-building, academics, branding and athleticism. The sports consultant will speak on your child's behalf and tell the coach the back story - this kid's only been playing football for one year, or this kid can really throw but he doesn't play in a passing offense. We have personal contacts with the college coaches that it is almost impossible for parents to obtain. Our job/responsibility is to focus on making sure that the athlete and parent is fully aware of the recruitment process from A-Z."
3. How much responsibility does the coaching staff at a high school bear in getting players recruited? Should players and parents expect them to promote their players to college? "The responsibility for high school coaches should be little to none in getting the athlete recruited. Why? Because the job description of a coach is not to focus on recruitment. High school coaches are hired to teach the sport's fundamentals, win games and to build on the athlete's potential. Parents don't always understand this and sometimes have the misconception that it's the coach's job to get the athlete recruited to the next level. Now, there are some coaches who go the extra mile, sending emails, letters, making phone calls along with film. Not every kid will be this privileged. Parents shouldn't expect a high school coach to take on this task."
4. What's your advice to parents? "Be proactive. By proactive, I mean being in control of the process before it takes place instead of responding to it after their goals or expected results aren't met. Know your limits as a parent, the rules and regulations and requirements, then act accordingly. The role of parents is to make themselves aware of the recruiting process. If they need help, retain services from a sports consulting company that is better equipped at getting the most effective outcome - recruitment. Oftentimes parents and athletes nearing the end of their high school career have invested time and money into recruiting companies that did not produce the results promised."
Produced by Georgia High School Football Daily, a free e-mail newsletter. To join the mailing list, click here.
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