Randy Policar, TheSunDevils.com contributor
Front office executive of a National Hockey League team before the age of 35.
Named to Hockey's Top 40 under 40 list by The Athletic.
A wife and mother.
It's hard not to be impressed by Marina Carpenter, a former Sun Devil volleyball student-athlete from 2005 to 2009. Known as Marina Mercer during her playing days (she married former Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter in 2017), she's achieved a tremendous amount of success in a traditionally male-dominated industry at a young age, using life lessons she learned during her career at Arizona State to make herself an indispensable member of the Arizona Coyotes.
"What I love about working in sports is that our goals are very clear. Win hockey games, be a good member of the community, and we want to build fandom in Arizona," she says. "Essentially, everything we do falls back into those categories. As an athlete, what are you trying to do? We want to win the Pac-12, win a national championship. What does it take to get there? Your trainers are on the same page, the equipment staff is on the same page, your coaches are on the same page. It's really fun in that regard that there are so many similarities in business and being an athlete, and luckily, my business is in sports."
As the Chief of Staff and General Counsel for the Coyotes, she oversees a little bit of everything for the NHL team.
"Half of my world is business operations and the other half is legal," she explains. "I'm what blends our departments together. I work very closely with marketing, corporate sponsorships, ticketing and community impact to really drive all those things home. People tease me that I'm kind of like the director of random stuff. There's really no issue too big or too small, I am generally involved."
She also oversees business operations for the minor league Tucson Roadrunners, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Coyotes. Between the two franchises she works with a wide range of different people in various departments. Being able to work effectively with such a diverse mix of people can be difficult, but Carpenter is able to rely on experience she got on campus in Tempe to make everything run smoothly.
"I had two head coaches at ASU, and I think that is a perfect example of being in the real world, the real business world," she explains. "You work with different personalities who want things done differently. Learning how to adapt to a different coaching style, coaching system, and coaching plan translates really well in business."
The ASU Years
A decorated athlete and student at Chandler High School, Carpenter grew up an ASU fan, so committing to play volleyball for the Sun Devils was a no-brainer.
"When I was going through my recruiting process, my mom had said if you tore an ACL and could never play volleyball again, you need to be happy at whatever school you're at," Carpenter recalls. "It would've been cool to play at some of the other schools I visited, but if I wasn't playing volleyball, I wouldn't want to be there. ASU was kind of the perfect combination for me."
Following a redshirt season in 2005, Carpenter made her mark on the program at the setter position. She started three seasons for the Sun Devils, including 2006 when the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. She was a three-time Academic All-Pac-10 selection, a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII selection and earned Freshman All-Pac-10 honors during her debut season.
Her senior season brought a new challenge, as her role with the team changed.
Following her sophomore season, the program underwent a coaching change, replacing head coach Brad Saindon, who recruited Carpenter, with Jason Watson. During her senior season, Watson opted to get his younger players in-game experience, leaving little playing time for Carpenter. Showing the leadership that resulted in her being named a team captain, Carpenter took it upon herself to mentor her replacement at the setter position, Cat Highmark. She met Highmark years prior after working for her dad, and encouraged her to transfer to ASU from Long Beach State, so already having a friendship made the transition easier.
"You either are on board or you are a detriment, and I was never going to be a detriment to my team," Carpenter says. "Especially because I viewed Cat as like a little sister and her success was important to me. I really just viewed it as I'm going to do everything in my power to make Cat the best setter she can possibly be. I had already played for Coach Watson for a season and had spent four years getting to know our conference opponents. I wanted to share any knowledge I had. We had a great relationship and she's literally my best friend to this day."
Carpenter refuses to look at the coaching change as anything other than an important learning experience that helped prepare her for her professional career.
"I'm so thankful I had that experience going through the 'regime' change because to me, I'm a lot more flexible and dynamic," she says. "Here with the Coyotes, we went through an ownership change over the summer, and for me it's kind of the same thing (as a coaching change). I was here when John Chayka took over as the GM and it was also kind of the same thing. How are priorities changing, how are philosophies changing and how can you best contribute?"
Life after Volleyball
The epitome of what it means to be a student-athlete, Carpenter graduated from Arizona State's W.P. Carey School of Business with a degree in Business Management in three and a half years, setting her sights on law school once her playing career ended. While finishing her time on the volleyball team as a non-degree seeking graduate student, she made the most of her opportunity for more education, earning a certificate in international business.
"I took some hard classes like International Economics. It wasn't a fluff class," Carpenter says. "I liked school and I liked being a student, so I didn't mind. I think ASU provided me the perfect opportunity to do that. I am thankful for the W.P. Carey School, the curriculum and the opportunities it provided me. While some people go to school just for sports, my experience was really much broader than that."
With her playing career behind her, she enrolled in law school at ASU, interning in the legal department of the Arizona Diamondbacks while completing her degree. After earning her law degree, she took a job at Phoenix law firm Jennings, Haug and Cunningham, which allowed her to gain a wide range of experience that would serve her well in her career.
"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I didn't think I wanted to do litigation, but I missed the competitiveness of sports, so I at least wanted the ability to do some litigation," Carpenter recalls. "I loved (working there). I got to work with all of our partners, which was a blessing. It was wonderful because I got so much exposure. I did employment work, I did contract work, I did litigation. I did environmental work. That was a perfect foundation for me to come in house and be an attorney for an organization (like the Coyotes). They made sure I was prepared and said the only way you are going to get better is if you have some reps."
While she enjoyed her work at the firm, working in the legal department for a professional sports team was always in the back of her mind, thanks to her experience with the Dbacks.
"There is so much correlation between working in sports and being a lawyer," Carpenter says. "How you prepare. How you game plan. How you evaluate what the other side is doing. When it's game time, it's game time."
When that opportunity presented itself in 2016, she jumped at the chance to join the Coyotes front office as Associate General Counsel. It didn't take long before her talents were on full display for the entire organization.
"She's always got a lot on her plate, she touches a lot of different areas of the organization," Coyotes General Manager John Chayka told The Athletic about Carpenter. "She's really helpful on the hockey side when we need her here. She has a good strategic mind for finding creative solutions to complex problems. She's a good brain to pick."
Carpenter had grown up playing some street hockey with her friends, but she wanted to make sure she knew every NHL rule inside and out. She sought out members of the team's hockey operations staff, sitting with them in the press box at home games to get a bird's eye view of the action, and with it, a better understanding of the game. That kind of creative problem solving, dedication and work ethic has allowed her to seamlessly become part of the larger NHL family.
"I've been accepted into this group and it's great," she says of her colleagues around the league. "Two or three years ago, I flew out to NHL meetings in New York and I probably went the majority of the day without realizing I was likely one of the younger ones and I was maybe amongst three or four other women who happened to be at that meeting. I think that's a testament to the NHL and its goals, and probably a little bit of my perspective. When someone criticizes me or challenges my ideas, I've never once jumped to the conclusion that it's because I'm a younger female in the room. I really try to internalize and think how can I better articulate my point or how can I better communicate this aspect? So, while I may be one of the few females, everyone I've worked with hasn't made an issue of it. I've always felt like I am just one of them."
That culture is fostered with the Coyotes, who have garnered a reputation in the media as one of the most forward thinking organizations in professional sports thanks to their extensive use of hockey analytics and the hiring of John Chayka as General Manager at the age of 26, the youngest GM in league history. That mentality has allowed Carpenter, who oversees the hiring processes with the club, to help build a team with employees who fit their specific mold.
"I love the culture here, because more important than just the experience on your resume is the cultural fit," Carpenter says. "I love that we place a value on those intangible things. I think it makes a difference. The work ethic, the teamwork, the ability to adapt, willingness to debate things and be criticized and challenge ideas, all that type of stuff. To me, those factors, are sometimes more important to me than years of experience. We try to really look at the whole employee, not just the experience that is on a resume."
Sun Devil for Life
Sun Devil Athletics are never too far from Carpenter's mind, even with the time commitments and responsibilities that come with her job. The connection she has to the school and the athletic department began when she was young and is still strong to this day, thanks to a pair of former Sun Devil quarterbacks.
"My mom is a big Sun Devil fan so I grew up a big Sun Devil fan," she says. "I still joke about it, because marrying Rudy Carpenter, I got to meet Jake Plummer! I was so stoked to meet him because I grew up watching him and he was the hero. I had a Jake the Snake shirt that I would wear to school."
Some of her best memories from her time at ASU are of cheering on her fellow student-athletes at their events.
"ASU sports were so much fun when I was in school," she says. "Rudy and the football team won the Pac-10 championship (in 2007), baseball was going to the College World Series, and then at the tail end, James Harden came (to campus). I think I had the best years of college, because everything about it was great. I had the perfect college experience."
But Sun Devil volleyball will always hold a special place in her heart, and she is excited about where the program is headed under fourth-year head coach Sanja Tomasevic.
"I remember playing against Sanja when she was at Washington, and they were so good," Carpenter said. "Since she was an outside hitter and I was a setter, I would get matched up blocking her a lot. She was super feisty and talked back and forth with me through the net. She was barking at me in Serbian and I was yelling at her in English. When she took over ASU's program, I was so thankful. I didn't care that she used to be an archrival that I hated playing against. It's fun now to have a relationship with her as she's building the program. I think she has done a really good job over the last few years that she's been there to set things on the right track."
No matter where her life takes her, no matter who is coaching, or whether they or winning or losing, Carpenter will never forget where she became the person she is today.
"Being a student-athlete is an experience unlike any other. It creates relationships that you couldn't get any other way. To me it just prepares you so well for life. Coaches come and go, but I will always be a Sun Devil."
Randy Policar (Class of 2002) spent four years as a student worker in the Sun Devils Sports Information office while earning his degree in broadcasting. He worked three years as the PR Director for the Arizona Rattlers before returning to his alma mater in 2005 as a sports information director, where he worked with Volleyball, Baseball and Football. He is currently a Senior Public Information and Communications Specialist for the City of Mesa.
Front office executive of a National Hockey League team before the age of 35.
Named to Hockey's Top 40 under 40 list by The Athletic.
A wife and mother.
It's hard not to be impressed by Marina Carpenter, a former Sun Devil volleyball student-athlete from 2005 to 2009. Known as Marina Mercer during her playing days (she married former Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter in 2017), she's achieved a tremendous amount of success in a traditionally male-dominated industry at a young age, using life lessons she learned during her career at Arizona State to make herself an indispensable member of the Arizona Coyotes.
"What I love about working in sports is that our goals are very clear. Win hockey games, be a good member of the community, and we want to build fandom in Arizona," she says. "Essentially, everything we do falls back into those categories. As an athlete, what are you trying to do? We want to win the Pac-12, win a national championship. What does it take to get there? Your trainers are on the same page, the equipment staff is on the same page, your coaches are on the same page. It's really fun in that regard that there are so many similarities in business and being an athlete, and luckily, my business is in sports."
As the Chief of Staff and General Counsel for the Coyotes, she oversees a little bit of everything for the NHL team.
"Half of my world is business operations and the other half is legal," she explains. "I'm what blends our departments together. I work very closely with marketing, corporate sponsorships, ticketing and community impact to really drive all those things home. People tease me that I'm kind of like the director of random stuff. There's really no issue too big or too small, I am generally involved."
She also oversees business operations for the minor league Tucson Roadrunners, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Coyotes. Between the two franchises she works with a wide range of different people in various departments. Being able to work effectively with such a diverse mix of people can be difficult, but Carpenter is able to rely on experience she got on campus in Tempe to make everything run smoothly.
"I had two head coaches at ASU, and I think that is a perfect example of being in the real world, the real business world," she explains. "You work with different personalities who want things done differently. Learning how to adapt to a different coaching style, coaching system, and coaching plan translates really well in business."
The ASU Years
A decorated athlete and student at Chandler High School, Carpenter grew up an ASU fan, so committing to play volleyball for the Sun Devils was a no-brainer.
"When I was going through my recruiting process, my mom had said if you tore an ACL and could never play volleyball again, you need to be happy at whatever school you're at," Carpenter recalls. "It would've been cool to play at some of the other schools I visited, but if I wasn't playing volleyball, I wouldn't want to be there. ASU was kind of the perfect combination for me."
Following a redshirt season in 2005, Carpenter made her mark on the program at the setter position. She started three seasons for the Sun Devils, including 2006 when the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. She was a three-time Academic All-Pac-10 selection, a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII selection and earned Freshman All-Pac-10 honors during her debut season.
Her senior season brought a new challenge, as her role with the team changed.
Following her sophomore season, the program underwent a coaching change, replacing head coach Brad Saindon, who recruited Carpenter, with Jason Watson. During her senior season, Watson opted to get his younger players in-game experience, leaving little playing time for Carpenter. Showing the leadership that resulted in her being named a team captain, Carpenter took it upon herself to mentor her replacement at the setter position, Cat Highmark. She met Highmark years prior after working for her dad, and encouraged her to transfer to ASU from Long Beach State, so already having a friendship made the transition easier.
"You either are on board or you are a detriment, and I was never going to be a detriment to my team," Carpenter says. "Especially because I viewed Cat as like a little sister and her success was important to me. I really just viewed it as I'm going to do everything in my power to make Cat the best setter she can possibly be. I had already played for Coach Watson for a season and had spent four years getting to know our conference opponents. I wanted to share any knowledge I had. We had a great relationship and she's literally my best friend to this day."
Carpenter refuses to look at the coaching change as anything other than an important learning experience that helped prepare her for her professional career.
"I'm so thankful I had that experience going through the 'regime' change because to me, I'm a lot more flexible and dynamic," she says. "Here with the Coyotes, we went through an ownership change over the summer, and for me it's kind of the same thing (as a coaching change). I was here when John Chayka took over as the GM and it was also kind of the same thing. How are priorities changing, how are philosophies changing and how can you best contribute?"
Life after Volleyball
The epitome of what it means to be a student-athlete, Carpenter graduated from Arizona State's W.P. Carey School of Business with a degree in Business Management in three and a half years, setting her sights on law school once her playing career ended. While finishing her time on the volleyball team as a non-degree seeking graduate student, she made the most of her opportunity for more education, earning a certificate in international business.
"I took some hard classes like International Economics. It wasn't a fluff class," Carpenter says. "I liked school and I liked being a student, so I didn't mind. I think ASU provided me the perfect opportunity to do that. I am thankful for the W.P. Carey School, the curriculum and the opportunities it provided me. While some people go to school just for sports, my experience was really much broader than that."
With her playing career behind her, she enrolled in law school at ASU, interning in the legal department of the Arizona Diamondbacks while completing her degree. After earning her law degree, she took a job at Phoenix law firm Jennings, Haug and Cunningham, which allowed her to gain a wide range of experience that would serve her well in her career.
"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I didn't think I wanted to do litigation, but I missed the competitiveness of sports, so I at least wanted the ability to do some litigation," Carpenter recalls. "I loved (working there). I got to work with all of our partners, which was a blessing. It was wonderful because I got so much exposure. I did employment work, I did contract work, I did litigation. I did environmental work. That was a perfect foundation for me to come in house and be an attorney for an organization (like the Coyotes). They made sure I was prepared and said the only way you are going to get better is if you have some reps."
While she enjoyed her work at the firm, working in the legal department for a professional sports team was always in the back of her mind, thanks to her experience with the Dbacks.
"There is so much correlation between working in sports and being a lawyer," Carpenter says. "How you prepare. How you game plan. How you evaluate what the other side is doing. When it's game time, it's game time."
When that opportunity presented itself in 2016, she jumped at the chance to join the Coyotes front office as Associate General Counsel. It didn't take long before her talents were on full display for the entire organization.
"She's always got a lot on her plate, she touches a lot of different areas of the organization," Coyotes General Manager John Chayka told The Athletic about Carpenter. "She's really helpful on the hockey side when we need her here. She has a good strategic mind for finding creative solutions to complex problems. She's a good brain to pick."
Carpenter had grown up playing some street hockey with her friends, but she wanted to make sure she knew every NHL rule inside and out. She sought out members of the team's hockey operations staff, sitting with them in the press box at home games to get a bird's eye view of the action, and with it, a better understanding of the game. That kind of creative problem solving, dedication and work ethic has allowed her to seamlessly become part of the larger NHL family.
"I've been accepted into this group and it's great," she says of her colleagues around the league. "Two or three years ago, I flew out to NHL meetings in New York and I probably went the majority of the day without realizing I was likely one of the younger ones and I was maybe amongst three or four other women who happened to be at that meeting. I think that's a testament to the NHL and its goals, and probably a little bit of my perspective. When someone criticizes me or challenges my ideas, I've never once jumped to the conclusion that it's because I'm a younger female in the room. I really try to internalize and think how can I better articulate my point or how can I better communicate this aspect? So, while I may be one of the few females, everyone I've worked with hasn't made an issue of it. I've always felt like I am just one of them."
That culture is fostered with the Coyotes, who have garnered a reputation in the media as one of the most forward thinking organizations in professional sports thanks to their extensive use of hockey analytics and the hiring of John Chayka as General Manager at the age of 26, the youngest GM in league history. That mentality has allowed Carpenter, who oversees the hiring processes with the club, to help build a team with employees who fit their specific mold.
"I love the culture here, because more important than just the experience on your resume is the cultural fit," Carpenter says. "I love that we place a value on those intangible things. I think it makes a difference. The work ethic, the teamwork, the ability to adapt, willingness to debate things and be criticized and challenge ideas, all that type of stuff. To me, those factors, are sometimes more important to me than years of experience. We try to really look at the whole employee, not just the experience that is on a resume."
Sun Devil for Life
Sun Devil Athletics are never too far from Carpenter's mind, even with the time commitments and responsibilities that come with her job. The connection she has to the school and the athletic department began when she was young and is still strong to this day, thanks to a pair of former Sun Devil quarterbacks.
"My mom is a big Sun Devil fan so I grew up a big Sun Devil fan," she says. "I still joke about it, because marrying Rudy Carpenter, I got to meet Jake Plummer! I was so stoked to meet him because I grew up watching him and he was the hero. I had a Jake the Snake shirt that I would wear to school."
Some of her best memories from her time at ASU are of cheering on her fellow student-athletes at their events.
"ASU sports were so much fun when I was in school," she says. "Rudy and the football team won the Pac-10 championship (in 2007), baseball was going to the College World Series, and then at the tail end, James Harden came (to campus). I think I had the best years of college, because everything about it was great. I had the perfect college experience."
But Sun Devil volleyball will always hold a special place in her heart, and she is excited about where the program is headed under fourth-year head coach Sanja Tomasevic.
"I remember playing against Sanja when she was at Washington, and they were so good," Carpenter said. "Since she was an outside hitter and I was a setter, I would get matched up blocking her a lot. She was super feisty and talked back and forth with me through the net. She was barking at me in Serbian and I was yelling at her in English. When she took over ASU's program, I was so thankful. I didn't care that she used to be an archrival that I hated playing against. It's fun now to have a relationship with her as she's building the program. I think she has done a really good job over the last few years that she's been there to set things on the right track."
No matter where her life takes her, no matter who is coaching, or whether they or winning or losing, Carpenter will never forget where she became the person she is today.
"Being a student-athlete is an experience unlike any other. It creates relationships that you couldn't get any other way. To me it just prepares you so well for life. Coaches come and go, but I will always be a Sun Devil."
Randy Policar (Class of 2002) spent four years as a student worker in the Sun Devils Sports Information office while earning his degree in broadcasting. He worked three years as the PR Director for the Arizona Rattlers before returning to his alma mater in 2005 as a sports information director, where he worked with Volleyball, Baseball and Football. He is currently a Senior Public Information and Communications Specialist for the City of Mesa.