"Where Are They Now" - Andre Sawyers
The "Where Are They Now" Wells College Athletics series puts a spotlight on the alumnae and alumni to give the Wells community an inside look at some of its many special student-athletes from years past. We would love to tell your story knowing that part of your journey began with us! Today's segment features Andre 'Dre' Sawyers.
Andre 'Dre' Sawyers was a member of the Wells College basketball (2008-12) teams and graduated from Wells with an individualized major in business and entrepreneurship in 2012.
While the men's basketball team was making NCAA history with the program's only coach – Joe Wojtylko – by becoming the fastest Division-III team to reach 20 wins with 21 in the team's second season, Dre has the distinction as being the only Wells College player to have been a part of three conference championship games and was selected by Wojtylko to the men's basketball all-decade team.
While Wojtylko was recruiting the top talent when Dre came on board the Wells Express over a decade ago, today Dre is recruiting top talent of his own, except in a different venue – music. When he's not doing that, the business and entrepreneur major is busy with his food catering business that he owns and founded.
After the team's first two seasons ended as NEAC Champion Runner-up, Dre put his stamp on taking the team to a conference championship OT win and an NCAA berth. In the 2011 NEAC Championship game against top-seed and host Penn State-Harrisburg, Dre was the only player from either team to record a double-double; boxscore: https://www.wells-express.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/boxscores/20110227_e25w.xml?view=boxscore.
During the course of Dre's basketball career at Wells, he helped the team's domination at home with a 29-8 career record, as well as a dominating conference record at 28-11 over four seasons. The senior captain helped the Express close out its regular season in 2011-12 on a seven-game win streak. Dre was also a recipient of the Lesley Wead Zabriskie Express Award that honors a student-athlete who embodies the true ideals of team commitment including leadership, discipline, dedication and sportsmanship.
During the team's championship season, Dre led the team in both field-goal percentage (.577) and free-throw percentage (.725). In his senior year, he led the team in blocks with 33. At the time of his graduation, Dre was in the top-five all-time in eight Wells College men's basketball categories. He was first in games played (102), second in total rebounds (508), third in field-goal percentage (.516), third in blocked shots (59), third in free-throws made (170), fourth in points (704), fourth in rebounds-per-game (5) and fifth in field-goals made (267).
In a brief question and answer segment with Dre, we asked him to reflect on his time at Wells in looking back, while at the same time offering some advice to current and future Wells College student-athletes:
Athletic and/or academic awards: Lesley Wead Zabriskie Express Award; Men's Basketball All-Decade Team.
Teams participated on and year of participation: Men's Basketball (2008-2012).
Current occupation/job description: Talent Acquisition Analytics Manager at Universal Music Group and Founder/Owner of Mustard Seed Food Catering.
Reasons for choosing Wells to continue your athletic career: The thing that piqued my interest the most when I was recruited by Coach Joe was the unique opportunity he presented me with - the opportunity to build a team/legacy from the ground up. Having the opportunity to set the bar high and make history so to speak was very attractive to me, and made my decision to play for Wells simple.
Favorite memory of Wells College: My favorite memory would be winning the NEAC Conference Championship, cutting that net and going on to play in the NCAA tournament; that is a memory that I will cherish forever and tell my children about one day.
Advice you would give to current Wells College Student-Athletes: Train hard; play hard; study harder.
