Two truths, and a lie...

You know the game. Make three statements and guess the lie. This time, I’m just going to tell which is which, because this isn’t a game. This is the reality of student-athlete development as I’ve experienced it.

Truth #1: Student-Athlete Development, the industry, is relatively young, and is still trying to find its sweet spot.

My last year of college baseball was the spring of 2002. I know, wow, I’m older than I look. (Thanks, Mom!) By the way, I’ve pretended to be younger than I really am for years. There is an invisible line in age where you are too old to be young and too young to be old. As you grow older it’s hard to find that sweet spot. Often, we look ahead with wonder (or worry) as to where that line will be, but at some point, we get to look back at that line with a new purpose, and at peace. I’m past the age line. It’s a great place to be. I enjoy being the "old guy" now. There is way less pressure to meet the approval of others. My favorite piece of advice I was given as a young professional was, “Aaron, not everyone is going to like you.” It’s taken years to fully appreciate what that means. As I’ve grown more competent, I’ve grown more confident. In my work, but more importantly, in myself. Now, I’m just me (dad jokes and all), striving to be the best version of myself every day…and to help others do the same.

The point of all that, being old, is that when I was a student-athlete I can attest to the fact that there were very few offerings in the student-athlete development space. It was universally called Life Skills then, first championed by the NCAA in 1994 (thanks to Georgia Tech paving the way). But even in 2002, it was new across the board. That first decade was a slow climb. All I remember is that in my senior year, I had a person encourage me to sign me up to read at an elementary school and later help me edit my first resume. That’s it. That was my student-athlete development experience off the baseball field. Obviously, I would have picked some other life skills along the way, but there wasn’t a formal program like there is today.

Similar to an age line, I now see there is an "experience line" in student-athlete development programming. An invisible line where you are too expert to be new and too new to be expert. There is a line for your program and your people. Meaning, that if your program has a goal to get better every day at some point you’ll reach a level of excellence that changes what you expect of yourself and what others expect of you. When you are a novice we expect less. Once you reach veteran status we expect more. Everyone’s “line” is different, but you’ll know when you get there. And when you do, it changes your outlook on your purpose, your productivity, and how you go about your business. It’s like a marathon, the person in the front, middle, and back all have different mindsets due to their standing in the race. Their training, their goals, and their expectations are different. Similarly, some schools are way out front, many are in the middle, and some are lagging behind, but we’re all in the same race to help student-athletes and working hard to get better every step of the way.

As the landscape of college athletics continues to shift it’s clear that the student-athlete development industry is still trying to find its sweet spot. And yet, as a whole, I think we’ve reached the experience line. So, what now? On the age line, I just needed to finally embrace getting old to harness the competence and confidence I was gaining over time. Which ultimately helped me find new purpose and meaning in my work. On the experience line, student-athlete development programs need to embrace and adapt to the realities and opportunities we have been given through this changing landscape. Which ultimately will help the industry find new purpose and meaning in its efforts.

Truth #2: College Athletic Departments have long overlooked post-graduation metrics, prioritizing grades and graduation over first destinations.

Fast forward to 2012, when I decided to go back to school to get a master's degree. I was fortunate at that time to also get my first role working directly in college athletics. At that time, I was surprised and excited to see how far Student-Athlete Development had come. And yet, early in that experience, I asked a campus colleague the question, "So, what are the student-athlete graduates doing now? Do we track that?" What I heard blew my mind. "Oh, we don't want to know that. That data doesn't look nearly as good as our graduation data." Yikes! We, the industry, had come a long way, but it became clear that we had a lot of work to do.

GPAs and graduation rates have long been more important metrics than knowing where our graduates end up. Some will argue that’s because that part is so fluid and out of our control. We can only do what we can with them while we have them. The rest, I suppose, will take care of itself. Most however will argue it’s because of NCAA APR and GSR eligibility standards and where we’ve been told where to place our focus. Budgets were built off academic expectations, not future destinations.

The good news is that first-destination metrics have become more of a thing over the years. For a school to say that 95% of their graduating class left with a plan is a great thing. (“Plan” being a job, graduate school, athletic contract, etc.) But, you have to start somewhere. Even if the first year you tracked it the number was 70%. At least you’d now know what ballpark you were in and how to start strategically changing the programming and culture to get that number up. It matters where our student-athletes end up. Even though we know the first destination isn’t the last, our aim is to help student-athletes maximize their time in school and prepare them for lifelong success. From what I’ve experienced there are two goals in setting a post-grad plan. The initial goal is for them to just have a plan. Any plan. That’s what improves your statistics. But we don’t do this work for statistics. Once that plan starts to materialize the second goal then is to help them to get confident, get excited, and get prepared for that plan. This two-part post-graduation goal is intentionally aspirational and the reward for accomplishing it makes all the other benchmarks make sense. You don’t get the grades just for the grades, they lead to a degree. Similarly, you don’t get the degree just for the degree, it leads to a post-grad plan. And once you embark on a plan that you are proud of, and are excited for, it completes the academic loop.

The Lie: Student-Athletes will successfully transition into life after sport by leaning on their transferrable skills.

Over time, as student-athlete development has progressed we’ve gotten more serious about helping student-athletes not only graduate but leave with a first destination plan in hand. However, that’s not the whole story. The current system is still missing the boat because it assumes that the skills that a student-athlete learns will automatically transfer into life beyond college athletics. Almost as bad as “we don’t need to know”, is “they will be fine, everybody loves to hire a student-athlete.” Sport does teach amazing life sessions. As does the daily grind of being a student-athlete. But connecting the dots from sport to life isn’t easy. Shedding one identity for another forces a person to think about things in an entirely new way. Whether one gets a chance to play their sport professionally or not, someday it will end. And when it does, for many it can be a traumatic experience. It’s like switching career fields and starting all over again. It’s doable, but it’s daunting. And it’s in that window of time, during a major life transition when student-athlete development would be most helpful.

I’m all-in on student-athletes having transferrable super skills, but here is the rub: most of our student-athletes are attending development sessions while in school without a clear first destination in mind. Our student-athletes don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what they need until they need it, which for many is after they have left and transitioned away from the student-athlete life. The moment life hits the fan. When I chat with an alum I often hear two things that I’m sure y’all can relate to. “I wish y’all would have provided _______,” (which we do), or “I wish I would have paid more attention to _______.” You’ve developed a great program, and yet, in those two comments, one never saw it, and the other didn’t know why they needed it. I don’t really blame either. I’ll admit that I used to. Those comments used to be incredibly frustrating to me. Not anymore. It’s taken some time, but I finally understand what’s going on. Our student-athletes are trying to pass chemistry, compete for championships, and predict the obstacles in their future. All at the same time. Trust me, I’m not making excuses for them. Some need to wake up, lock-in, and take advantage of the resources they have right now. I’m just much more realistic with what sticks and what doesn’t. And how the timing of life plays a huge part in that impact. For example, I’ve got 5 kids. If you sat me down at age 21 and tried to teach me the tips and tricks of being a successful father…I would have chuckled at the thought. I would have respectfully listened to the talk and then walked away with at best a seed planted, but more likely, just a checkmark in your program completion box. Many years later it’s a different story, and I’m a completely different person, and I love and use those tips when I hear them.

Tracking post-grad data is progress and it’s a good place to start but it’s just the beginning of developing stronger relationships with our student-athlete alumni. I predict that athletic department budgets will allocate more and more funds to provide programming for young alums who are in the middle of a quarter-life crisis, struggling to figure things out in their first destination. Degrees are a dime a dozen. It’s not enough to get our student-athletes to walk across the graduation stage. That paper oftentimes just gets your foot in the door. Imagine the value of your program if your newly minted young alums had a place and a program to turn to when life after sport really gets real. With eyes and ears wide open they would tune in, maybe for the first time, to find some nugget of wisdom to apply to their new life. With this added help and support, many will confidently pull their foot out of that door they have been given and walk right through...with a new purpose, and at peace.

The Lesson: Like the game, identifying life’s truths and lies can be tricky. However, recognizing both is the key to problem-solving. And the first step forward often starts with a story...

I've worked with over 3000 student-athletes in the past 12 years...and I’m finally getting around to realizing how important it is to cultivate and capture post-grad stories from those I’ve crossed paths with. I guess you could say my first decade in the field was also a slow climb. I’ve been so caught up in the game of trying to create the best possible programming for current student-athletes, hoping that the lessons we teach stick. Some do, some don’t, that’s part of the gig. But, trying to convince student-athletes to want what we know they need, hasn’t worked. In doing so, I’ve missed an opportunity right in front of me to make an even greater impact by connecting with and learning from the alumni who have already made the transition. Clearer than ever, they know what they want and they know what they need. What’s my goal here? I want to help reimagine what helping student-athletes navigate life transitions looks like. I'm grateful to have reconnected with some former student-athletes since my last post on life transitions. There are many common themes, but here’s a fascinating thing I’ve learned in my story-collecting process. I found that both the least active program participants and the most active participants feel lost when they leave. The struggle is real. We know that part of that struggle is good, but part of “feeling lost” means that sometimes, alums are looking for help. And if it’s not easily found at their university I believe something has to change. A new experience line has been drawn for student-athlete development. That line represents those who provide life transition programming and guidance to alums and those who don’t. Some are ahead of the game looking back at that line wishing they would have started sooner. Others are still looking ahead to it trying to figure out how to get started or make more progress. But we can’t pretend we don’t see it. I believe this opportunity marks the Student-Athlete Development sweet spot. In fact, new NCAA legislation (see bylaw 16.3.1.2) that came out of the Transformation Committee makes this more of a reality than ever. How this plays out from school to school will vary, but let’s think outside the box to make the most of this challenge. Our alums need to know where to turn to for help when they need it. And ideally, that place isn’t a third-party service, it’s their alma mater. It’s the institution that they loved and worked so hard for. The place that lives proudly on their resume. Let’s make it a priority to keep our doors wide open and help create a community that finds new ways to keep them connected to that place, forever.

My goal is to help find creative solutions to common problems. Want to join me? I’m working on a project related to the “quarter-life crisis” that many of our young alums face and the first step is to continue to gather student-athlete transition stories. Want to share your story?

Let’s talk.

AP