On Monday, I started my first week of class for the Spring semester at Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg. It is my final semester and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am taking a Sports Law class and will be sure to include any insights that I think are worthy of discussing. The class is mostly designed to deal with professional sports leagues and the inner workings of the leagues, such as Commissioner authority, but will touch on some things related to agents.
One benefit of taking a Sports Law class is you learn a lot about your classmates. This week I made contact with a former Seton Hall University baseball player who has former unrepresented teammates playing pro ball. I am in the process of getting the players’ contact information. I also made contact with a kid whose father played in the N.H.L. Hopefully these contacts will prove beneficial in the future and the players will join the Dynasty family and become successful. It will also prove that I can do what it takes to succeed in this industry, because you never know where contacts such as these will lead.
One major benefit that I hope to achieve from my time with Dynasty is the ability to network with people in the industry. Coming from a smaller area in central Pennsylvania, it is not the same as living in L.A. or N.Y.C. However, thanks to the many social networking tools available, I hope that I am able to develop relationships with as many people in the sports industry as humanly possible. Contacts will be a huge tool as I move toward graduation and landing that first job.
This week I began compiling lists of contact information for Nippon Professional Baseball (the Japanese Professional League). I am working with some other interns to gather this information. Each of us has a different Asian league. The list will help our baseball agents when they look to place clients in these leagues. The list may be tougher than I thought, as the official team sites do not have much English content. Since it is impossible to learn the Japanese language in a few days, I will probably do some creative researching and see if I can find the information elsewhere. My school week is basically over by Wednesday, so I anticipate getting the bulk of this work done in the next couple days.
In a non-sports agent related task, I also contacted a few people within the ABA Forum on Entertainment and Sports Law to try and help Darren promote UF’s Sports Law Symposium. I am also working on compiling a list of the different law schools which are hosting sports law symposiums this year.
So far its been an eventful and rewarding two weeks as an intern with Dynasty. I hope as the semester moves on I can continue taking on projects and increase my role.