An interview with one of my agents: 55th Most Influential Blog and Rising Sports Agent Matt Vuckovich is the cofounder of Dynasty Athlete Representation and a contributer to Sports Agent Blog. He attends law school at the Southern California Institute of Law. Usually he is interviewing other agents for the Sports Agent Blog, but last week, he took the other side of the microphone in the JSB exclusive. Mitchell Blatt: Growing up, did you want to be an agent as a teen? Matt Vuckovich: Yes. Growing up I played hockey. My best friend now plays for the Chicago Blackhawks. I attended the NHL Draft with him. Since then, I've had a chance to talk with his agents and really get to know the business. Sports was an industry that I always wanted to get involved with, because I've always been involved with sports. Being a sports agent, it was just an industry that really caught my eye, because they work behind the scenes. Most people don't really understand all the work that is involved in being an agent. MB: Is the job how you envisioned it as a teen? MV: I don't know about that. The biggest reality check is how much work it involves. Forming our own agency [with Sports Agent Blog owner, Darren Heitner], Dynasty Athlete Representation, we're on the grind, day and night, really trying to get the business running. It always takes a lot of effort, because there are other people trying to take the same players you're going after. MB: How do you find the time to run the agency and finish law school? MV: I'm actually going to law school part time, and my partner Darren Heitner is going to law school full time at the University of Florida. What I do, is every morning, from about six am to four pm, I do business, whether it's making phone calls, putting together marketing packages, checking on clients that we already have? Then at night, I go to class. Darren goes to school full time, so he has school from eight to five. By the time I'm heading to class, he's coming back and he gets working. MB: Why did you start your own agency instead of joining an existing agency? MV: I think it comes down to the individual that I am and the individual that Darren is. I think it takes someone to really put everything out on the line, and if it happens, great, but if it doesn't, you need to be able to deal with your own actions. I'm a pretty independent person, and I always wanted to do my own thing. To be honest, though, I didn't know that I was going to form my own agency. But, the fact that Darren and I both met did it. We realized that in this industry, you really have to make a name for yourself to set you apart. We decided, we're both young now, so lets give it a run and see what we can do. MB: Do you know of any other agents who got started as young as you? MV: I believe that Drew Rosenhaus did. He was a second or third year law student at Duke. Other than that, I don't know. Leigh Steinberg. That's all I can think of. MB: You became the first agency to sign PBA bowlers this year. Why didn't bowlers have agents before? MV: I think that the bowling industry as a whole hasn't really been too familiarized with agents. It wasn't until our first client, Mike DeVaney, commented on the blog asking if anyone was interested in represtenting a bowler? I do believe he tried to contact other agencies as well, but they didn't want him because they were already established and didn't want to get involved with bowling. Darren and I saw this as a great opportunity to really get Dynasty on the map. We now have two other bowlers, Robert Smith and Mike Machuga, and we're in talks with more. But, bowling is still an industry that isn't too agent friendly. Most of the companies that we do call looking for marketing opportunities say that they don't deal with agents, and they want to talk to the athletes directly. MB: Now, you also signed a baseball player, Kyle Monroe-Dison. Can you give a brief biography? MV: Kyle pitched in junior college then he played one year in the independent leagues, but he hurt his arm, and he's had Tommy John surgery. He is just now doing workouts for some teams. He's real great. He does a blog for Yardbarker. He's trying to recruit other baseball players to join Dynasty. Dynasty's clientele also includes Barbara Bonic, a 15-year-old Serbian tennis star.