Reginald Grant, MSEd - Listen to his biography on Podcast Bio, click here.
Reginld Grant, MSEd
The team is led by former NY Jet, Reginald Grant, MSEd who has a life-time of relationships and knowledge about the sports, and technology sectors. He led the “Watkins Award” from its regional status to its place as the premier award in its sector, and Nisus Software from $186,000 to $1.8 million in sales in about a year. No one is better equipped to lead a company into this new eSports sector.
As far back as 1998, he developed a sports software company based in San Diego, California. Our product “ ePlaybook Football Basics 101” was a finalist and third place finisher for the Start-up of the Year Award presented by the San Diego Software and Internet Council in 1999. Reginald was instrumental in the creation and development of the software program. He directed the development team, compiled all of the research and took the product to market. In 1996 he developed one of the world’s first community-focused website portals “VirtuallyBlack.com.” After its initial success, he sold his interest. He then worked with former Super Bowl Champion “Dokie” Wiliams on the then ground-breaking “ProBook.”
A certificated English teacher, since 2oo2. He has taught urban youth, international ESL students and delivered workshops for both education professionals and parents. A former NFL player for the New York Jets, he also finds time to serve on several boards of national organizations working with youth. Reginald is a board member and former chairman of the board for the National Alliance of African American Athletes (The Alliance). The Alliance has presented the premier award in the nation for African American high school male scholar athletes for the past 27 years and boasts a 98% college graduation rate.
He is the author of "Thoughts of An Urban Teacher" (2017), "Effective Mentoring in the 21st Century" (workbook 2017), "Success Stories Insights by African American Men"(2016),”A Case for Bilingual Education” (2015),“A Teacher’s View Education in America.”(2014) and numerous teacher guides, workbooks, and articles.
CEO-Chief Executive Officer
BACKGROUND
Let’s start at the beginning, back in 1998 Super Bowl Champion and PHd., Dan Audick approached me about his concept of providing instruction for professional football teams using computers. This was an innovate and cutting edge concept at the time. I was working for a cutting edge software company Nisus Software which specialized in products for the Apple computer. Their primary product was a word processor Nisus Writer. I had worked in the internet industry and on other sports related projects so, I was sold as to what the future held. We collaborated and started a company “ePlaybook” to develop an instructional product for sports teams.
At the end of a year we evolved and developed a instructional CD based product for the consumer market aimed at novice sports fans and women entitled “ePlaybook 101 Football Basics.” It was developed to work on the PC and Apple platforms. We placed third out of 250 start-up companies in a competition by the San Diego Software and Internet industry Council competition. We invested about $150,000 and competed against companies with budgets exceeding $ 24,000,000 and, kicked butt. We then landed a pitch session with the head of Software for Apple Clint Richardson in Apples offices in Cupertino, California. We asked for a million dollars and the head of marketing stated “Reggie this is some of the best software we have ever seen, but unless you are Disney, Steve (Jobs) will not authorize the funds.” Needless to say we did not get the big infusion of capital and within a year we dissolved the company.
I was determined to move forward and registered eSportsInstruction.com and about ten other related names. But, we were ahead of our time; broadband did not exist as it does today. So, the company eSportsInstruction.com evolved into a marketing, branding and instructional sports camp entity. We hosted camps around the country in San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit, Tampa, Dallas, and other sites with our partners. We produced licensed products with the “Rose Bowl.” Our advisory board was a who’s who of sports and we watched and waited as the growth and expansion of eSports, gaming and broadband became common place. Sports teams’ eventually embraced instruction and scouting technologies, the technology had caught up with the concept.
I eventually entered the educational arena, wrote five books, all the while running camps and events around the nation. I went back to school and earned a Masters in Education with an emphasis on Curriculum development. I began to see the conversion of technology in education, eSports, and traditional sports. The concepts for the re-launch of eSportsInstruction.com took root and here we go. The time is right, the market ready and the opportunity is now.