Derek Marques is a professional baseball agent and MLB Draft Advisor for Lakeridge Sports Management. I came across Marques while looking for someone who takes part in the success of professional baseball prospects. Little did I know Marques contributed to the success of multiple MLB teams and I could not have been more honoured to have the chance to speak to him. In our discussion, Derek Marques provided us with the passion, compassion and bravado it takes to find success in and for a sports agent’s clients. The passion he has for the game of baseball matches his passion for enriching the lives of current and aspiring professional athletes.
Please note: The interview with Derek Marques was conducted via a typed conversation. Editing changes were made to make it easier to read while maintaining the voice of the interview.
Tell me a bit about your role at Lakeridge Sports.
That’s an easy one, I am the founder, CEO, Lead Baseball Player Agent and like to consider myself the janitor as well [laughs]. Because we are a smaller company I do it all and everyone gets treated the same.
What does a typical day look like for you when you’re there?
There really is no such thing as a typical day when it comes to being an agent because you never know what may be thrown at you from the players and also priorities change based on the time of the year. for example here in January priority helping players getting their equipment ready for Spring Training and with the College Season a few weeks away working with the players that we are advising for the 2020 MLB Draft. As the head of LSM day, today is a little more structured and touch base with the employees to answer any questions they may have touch in to ensure everything is moving forward as desired.
So, at what point when you were growing up, that you realized you wanted a career involving sports? Did you play any growing up?
I would say I started falling in love with sports in Grade 3 and closely started following them all. I only played organized baseball but out on the street with my friends, I would do it all road hockey, football, basketball, soccer.
What is something that may have surprised you about working in this industry? Was the fact that no day looks the same for you something that you expected?
The biggest surprise of the industry is how laid back and casual teams are, from negotiating a contract over text message to an MLB GM returning your call during his team’s game. Never put much thought into day to day of being an agent other than working with players and helping them achieve their dream. You get exposed to the day to day as you get involved.
What is something you would say that they don’t teach you in school that you learned while being in this industry?
As someone who is in Sports Management without ever taking a Sports Management class I can’t speak specifically but what I can say is I feel the school is there to mold the person and give them fundamentals of being successful in the workforce. For example, how to prioritize your work and that project that was due in highschool will teach you to meet that deadline in the workforce. When it comes to learning about the job specifically I feel no matter the course that gets done mostly when you are in the job itself. The best way to learn is being on the job!
What your most memorable accomplishment?
I would say negotiating my first MLB Contact with the Tampa Rays very early in my career I will never forget and I get a great accomplishment every June when I help players get drafted into the MLB as their advisor and making that call to them congratulating them on being drafted and taking another step closer of achieving their dream.
You being part of that major step for them in their life must be an incredible feeling. Do you have any quotes you live by or use as motivation? Or anything you try to remind yourself of when you feel under pressure?
I have many motivational quotes a lot of them have to do with hard work because I feel that is a major factor in success in life.
At the company, we say the LSM formula is Talent + Hard Work + Motivation – Attitude = Success
This one is a bit of a silly one but is actually my favourite. If you could have any superpower that could help you in your career, what would it be and why would you choose to have it?
My goal is to always try and keep calm I feel that if I am pressure that was a sign that I was not prepared for the situation and you can ask any of my players we always go over best and worst-case scenarios so we are prepared for anything that gets thrown our way.
If I had a superpower I would say I would want the power to overtake someone’s mind that way I could help my players move up the minor league baseball system quicker and all of the players I advise for in the MLB Draft would get drafted.
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Melissa’s Final Thoughts
My interview with Derek Marques was really insightful of the day to day a sports agent really entails. In this post, Marques shed some light on the connection agent and player have while demonstrating how he handles the responsibility of helping those get their career going. Be sure to check into Lakeridge Sports Management’s socials, as well as Derek Marques’ personals to be updated on the success of his clients and announcements on new ones.
Derek Marques
Interview by Melissa Mihalis
Posted January 28, 2020 in Industry Profiles