Joey LamarThu 5:41 PM, Apr 16, 2020

By: Joey Lamar | WCTV Eyewitness Sports
April 16, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) -- Former Florida A&M men's and women's basketball coach Mickey Clayton started Insiights so kids in the Big Bend area could get the exposure he feels they deserve. 

And at not cost to the athlete.

Clayton knows Tallahassee has tons of local talent and he wants everyone to see it.

"To do something with the high school kids that would showcase the talent that is area and teams," Clayton said. "The academic programs at these individual schools and promote them and allow these student athletes to feel like they were big time. Get them on TV, get them on YouTube and let them be able to use it for a recruiting tool."

Clayton started his company six years ago. For the last four years, they have covered and broadcaster high school games. 

His Youtube channel has over 300 games and stories.

"[Leon County] said you had to get permission from the individual schools to do it," Clayton said. "So I met with some of the schools and not everyone was interested in Insiights televising and producing their games, even though it cost them nothing."

Early on, he experienced almost every technical issue imaginable, but says he had to resolve the problems without any help.

"Trying to stream it," Clayton said. "Then you couldn't have access to stream it. Then the stream would break down. Then they would tether it, which means you can't get it out at the speed you were and all of sudden it's buffering."

In the Big Bend and South Georgia areas, Clayton has covered volleyball, girls and boys basketball, baseball and, of course, football. 

"We're really excited to get outside the immediate area," Clayton said, "But we can never forget where we started from, which is here."

This year, the company broadcast middle school games and the response was overwhelming.

"Has become legendary," Clayton said. "Just this past season, three of our most watched football games were middle school games. The two best basketball games we have up there right now are the city championship for boys basketball, which went to double overtime and the girls' game might have went to triple overtime."

Clayton says they want to grow to cover softball and track. In each game, instead of doing a player of the game, he does an academic student of the game, which is given to the player with highest GPA on each team.

          INSiiGHTS Sports is proud to announce that it’s INSiiGHTS Game of the Week Series has found a new broadcast home with Leon County Schools public television station, WLCS. WLCS will air two games on Saturday and Sunday afternoons during prime time and during a yet to be determined weekly time slot, as well.

          The INSiiGHTS Game of the Week series has been a part of the WCTV2, now METV programming since September of 2016.

          INSiiGHTS founder Mickey Clayton states, “It was a blessing to be a part of the WCTV family. They took a chance on a start up company and allowed us to put high school sports in the homes of many people. We produced over 125 games in 4 years. We are forever grateful for the people over at WCTV, for believing in our team.”

          WLCS is interested in some of the features that INSiiGHTS has produced that feature some of the area schools and students both current and past.

          INSiiGHTS TV on YouTube houses all of the past sporting events from area high schools and middle schools for the past four years.

          Leon County Schools enjoyed the highlight segment of the Game of the Week Series that features a segment entitled the Dr. Arthur Woodard Academic Student of the Game honoree. These students are selected by their school for the highest grade point average and community involvement. These students and their families are featured in a recognition dinner in May of each year by the Woodard Foundation of Miami, Florida.

          Mickey Clayton, the retired former head basketball coach at Florida A&M University states, “As a dad, my wife and I enforced and reinforced the academic successes of our daughters through their athletic participation. It was important for INSiiGHTS to give additional praise to those students and families that excel academically within the sphere of athletics.”

          Vanessa Woodard-Byers, Executive Director of the Woodard Foundation of Miami, Florida added, “My dad,  Dr. Arthur Woodard was a Hall of Fame football player under Coach Jake Gaither. He was a successful coach and retired as the principal at Miami Central High School. Education was always at the forefront of everything he preached to us, his children and to his students that he viewed as extensions of his family. We have been thrilled to see his legacy continue to grow through the students honored through INSiiGHTS, especially in an area we started from, Tallahassee at FAMU and DeFuniak Springs.”

          Some of the games feature the growing middle school programs, as well as the high schools. All of the games since 2016 are housed at INSiiGHTS TV on YouTube. There is no fee, no registration required, and no subscription cost. INSiiGHTS comes at now cost to the viewer or to the students that are participating.

          There are stories and additional information on the INSiiGHTS web page at www. INSiiGHTS.com

          Mickey Clayton proudly stated,  “We are excited about this opportunity to continue to highlight and showcase these students and programs that are working hard to things in a positive manner. Let’s give accolades and attention to the many positive things that are around us even as we continue to work on those issues that require a different touch.”

          “We are even more excited to be a part of WLCS. We have been continually encouraged by the community to talk to Leon County Schools about being a part of their programming because so much of what we do involves around the students within the county. We finally approached Ricky Bell and the approval from Supt. Rocky Hannah was swift. We met with Dr. Michele Gayle and Dana Barnes to quickly move to integrate INSiiGHTS programming into the WLCS television schedule.