By Craig Anderson

MILTON — Need help in throwing a baseball better?

Hire a pitching coach for your child.

Need assistance in finding the right college for your kid?

Contact a professional focused on doing just that.

James Kiger is available to utilize his experience as a Smyrna High guidance counselor to navigate the process.

Mr. Kiger, 62, retired after 28 years in December of 2023 and has since launched College Guidance Consulting Service with his wife Anita Kiger from their home in Milton.

Meeting via Zoom with would-be college students and parents, the Kigers can help in the search and location of a school from start to finish.

That includes assistance identifying schools that fit a student’s criteria, organizing information for applications, finding scholarships and more.

The consulting service “is really a one-stop shop for college preparation and there’s career counseling available if a student has no idea what they want to do.

“I think there’s a need for this and I don’t think people understand that there’s a service out there that can help them.”

Mr. Kiger, a longtime girls’ basketball head coach at Smyrna, believes the path to finding a college should begin freshman year and believes the biggest mistake “is waiting too long to start looking.”

Through his work as a guidance counselor and experience assisting his own five children in finding a school, Mr. Kiger believes he’s well qualified to help others.

Mr. Kiger is part of the Independent Educational Consultant Association, which has over 2,100 members nationwide.

“Some think of us as an extended guidance counselor and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.

“We give individual help and coaching in finding the right match schools, help with deadlines, finding scholarships, setting up campus visits, applications, and (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) questions,. But most importantly, we visit colleges and get a firsthand view of what makes a school a good choice for the student.”

Mr. Kiger, who said he’s assisted one family so far, noted that “I have the time to work with individuals way more now than when I was a school counselor.

“My client base is small compared to 475 students to one counselor.”

For information, visit faststart2college.com.