Mission Statement
Who We Are and Why We Are Doing This........
"To Empower High School Student-Athletes and Parents Through Education"
After almost two years of development and testing, our educational web site www.AthleticScholarshipsDirect.com
was officially launched on January 14, 2012
Our company, Virtus Interactive, LLC was founded after I was laid off from my
executive position in Manhattan in November of 2009. As a former Division 1 Athletic Administrator
(United States Military Academy at West Point) I teamed with other like-minded
current and former college athletic administrators and scholarship athletes who
share my passion and are committed to giving back to high school athletics.
Some of you will understand what I mean when I tell you that we believe
this endeavor is from the hand of Divine Providence; our mission in
life.
Additionally, because of our direct knowledge of the recruiting
process, we are intent on changing the business paradigm of an oftentimes
corrupt culture of deceit, broken promises and unethical behavior. The horror
stories we have heard while in the process of building the company, have been
heart-breaking.
Collectively, we are committed to bringing light to the darkness that
pervades this industry; even those of us who have served as NCAA Division I
Athletic Administrators have a difficult time navigating the maze that is
college athletic recruiting. We want to remove the fog and simplify the core
issues, extract key eligibility data, and linking directly to important NCAA,
NAIA and Junior College web information, making it easier for parents and their
children to understand and to comply. Most importantly, we want to put the
power and accountability back into the hands of parents and student-athletes,
not the intermediary recruiters or paid talent evaluators.
Everyone
involved in our venture is
collectively bound by common ideals, ethics and morals; We will always give
back to the various constituencies we serve and we will treat everyone we come
in contact with; Subscribers, Partners, Coaches, Administrators as we would
want to be treated; with respect, dignity and fairness.
After spending decades in both big business and college
athletics, and reading probably
hundreds of lines of puffed up "Mission Statements" that weren't
worth the paper they were written on, I decided to dispense with the
usual "puff pastry" (A homage to the late, legendary hoops
coach, Al McGuire) and share with you two passages that have guided me through
life and will guide this company for as long as I am at the helm......
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by
dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short
again and again, because there is no great effort without error or shortcoming,
but who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a
worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high
achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
knew neither victory nor defeat."
President Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne,..Paris, April 23 1910
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your
paths."
Proverbs 3; 5-6
While Teddy is correct in stating, "because there is no effort
without error or shortcoming" you have my personal commitment that we will
"strive valiantly" to conduct our business with the utmost integrity
and personal virtue.
We will always give back to the various constituencies we serve
and we will treat everyone we come in contact with; Subscribers, Partners,
Coaches, Administrators as we would want to be treated; with respect, dignity
and fairness.
Some will read these words and snicker; so be it. This is who we are.
Live every day to the fullest and ALWAYS "Pursue the Dream" tm
Mike Pirolo
17 January 2012