Personal Reflection
Personal Reflection
As I look back and reflect on this past semester, the main theme that comes to mind is growth. From when I started this graduate program in 2021, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do as far as career aspirations. I knew I came here to play football, being the primary, and rather than taking classes for a post-bachelors certificate I wanted to start something that would be beneficial for my future. Whether I finished it or not, I knew that if I started there, I would finish later wherever I ended up, even if it meant transferring to another school. My sights were very much on football, playing my last collegiate season and starting training for the NFL draft.
When I came to Idaho State, I saw myself wanting to be a marketing agent for an agency or working for a professional sports team working in a marketing/brand partnerships department. I also had no idea where I could get started. With hardly any work experience, being a student-athlete my whole life, and the sports industry being extremely hard to get into, I didn’t know anything. Through the coursework, talking and listening to students, my professors, and advisors, I was given great hope. I was blessed enough to get an opportunity in the NFL following my final collegiate season. I made the Carolina Panthers on a rookie minicamp tryout and ended up being the only rookie signed out of the unsigned players following that camp. I vividly remember emailing Dr. Faure letting her know that I would not enroll in summer classes just because I had no idea what my schedule was going to look like going through my first NFL camp and offseason. She responded so excited for me and reassured me that they will be there for me whenever I am ready to come back, also to make sure that I kick ass.
I had taken the spring semester classes following that fall because my coaches were great to honor my full school year worth of scholarship when they did not have to. So of course, I felt the need to push ahead with classes while training twice a day 5-6 days a week for my pro day. As time went on and I had spent some months away from the team after a short stint on the Indianapolis Colts practice squad I had started putting a lot of thought toward registering for classes that next spring. I had talked to my mother about it, and I had thought back to the email Dr. Faure had sent me. I decided to reach out to “Smitty” and ask what I could do to graduate, knowing that I only had about half of my degree left to fulfill. She was ecstatic to find out that I was ready to get the ball rolling, and once we confirmed that I only had the back half left to finish we came up with a tentative plan. Just as I alluded to before with being in the sports world, things are subject to change.
When I end up signing to the USFL team toward the end of that spring I enrolled back into the program, things got hard on me. I had to move up and out from where I was comfortably stationed in Dallas, Texas. I started to have less time on my hand to do work, and I still wanted to keep “the main thing the main thing”. I take football very seriously, and with it turning into my profession I try to do all that I can to improve and get better. At the end of the day, my goal as a player is to end up back in the NFL. But I was committed to my process of finishing school. Even when my mom questioned registering for summer courses this year due to me being in the heat of my football season, I stayed committed to my goal. To finish what I started. I reassured her that I was too close to the finish line and that I would do what needed to be done to be able to do both. And of course, I have been able to do both before, as a student-athlete. The commitment is a little different between the levels of ball collegiately and professional, even though the new Name, Image, and Likeness ruling is changing that a bit but that is conversation for another time. When it came to making a project topic, it was a bit tough for me. Dr. Faure and I had talked about how I could tailor both the internship that I did within the athletic department remotely, and a different internship that I had once started in Dallas under Lundy Marketing Group (LMG). Although it worked out because due to moving that spring to go play football as well as doing class and internship work within the school, I had no extra time to continue doing work for Mr. Lundy’s company at the time.
The gameplan then was to maneuver the second internship with the Marketing company and leverage both that work and my own work as a professional football player (because we did not know where that could potentially take me this fall) to put together as a project. So, this fall, when I was trying to get together some thoughts on paper, I got back in contact with Mr. Lundy, and he was happy to give me assignments to work on with his company that could fulfill my needs. In turn, we all seemed to get what we needed. There was a lot that I have endured to even get to this point. Both athletically and off-the-field. But I can honestly say that with this experience, finishing this program, and even simply networking and making relationships based from playing professionally, I have never felt as confident in a potential life after football as I do now. I could get some great real-time experience in the field, intern or not, while allowing me to continue training and staying ready for my next playing opportunity. Dr. Faure was excited and thankful to watch me get this opportunity, and see what I can share, and of course I can finish what I started! Hopefully ending with a degree in hand, and people in my corner with someone to be proud of. So rather than just a project as a capstone, I like to think of this as just my experience. I can say I am leaving ISU better than when I came, and I am much more than an athlete. Hopefully, I have been able to replicate what my story is to date, because at the end of the day everyone’s path is different.