A university degree alone does not propel a career. Oftentimes, it’s the whole university experience that sparks an idea.
In the case of Jayevan Foster, Artsci’13, it was his time spent on the Queen’s football team that influenced his next step, opening his own sports agency, Empire MGMT, to help football players get to the Canadian Football League. “Being an athlete and being around a lot of my buddies at Queen’s, they were all going pro,” says Foster. “We didn't really understand how to get to the next level. I thought there was a huge gap.”
Foster worked at an agency after graduation and knew pretty quickly that he aspired to start his own. He also knew it would take a while to gain clients because of his age and lack of experience.
Now, five years in, he’s celebrating a special milestone.“Because of everything that’s going on in the world, I think that society is woke for the first time,” he says. “The blinders are finally off. Now I can relate to the players. We are around the same age, we listen to the same music. And I care about my players. I try to prepare them for life after football.”
Because of COVID-19, life after football is coming a bit prematurely without a CFL season this year, but Foster says he’s not worried about his players. “I don’t just try to help them on the field, it’s about off the field, too,” he says. “I set them up with accounting. I set them up with my financial planners. I like to talk to them about life insurance. It’s about life after football. Football is not going to last forever. I pride myself that, during COVID, my players are good because I had them prepared for this moment.”
He was able to prepare them, he says, because of his Queen’s experience. “A lot of agents look at their players and see dollar signs,” he says. “But at Queen’s I learned to look deeper. I learned that we were people first and athletes second.”
The cancelled season is not stopping Foster from expanding the scope of his business. His next step is to get his NFL license. “I will be one of few people in Ontario licensed for the NFL,” he says. “It’s specifically to get Canadians down south. We have amazing athletes that can play down there. I want to bridge the gap for them and make their dreams come true.”
