These achievements are certainly noteworthy and something that Sun Devil Athletics is proud to highlight. Perhaps no one is more proud of this record-setting accomplishment than the dedicated staff in the Office of Student-Athlete Development (OSAD). OSAD serves as a resource for student-athletes to receive academic support and develop life skills for their endeavors after college. This office is comprised of academic coaches, learning specialists, academic mentors, and tutors, all focused on helping student-athletes achieve success in the classroom and in life.
Kelli Benjamin, who serves as the Assistant Director of Championship Life for Sun Devil Athletics, says that this achievement would not be possible without the teamwork and culture that OSAD has built.
“Without the teamwork of everyone, we wouldn’t have gotten the GPA that we did,” Benjamin said. “There’s a lot of maneuvering all the time, depending on what life throws at student-athletes, and so I think the GPA is a true testament to not only the tenacity that the student-athletes have towards their academics, but also the academic coaches working closely with their student-athletes to help them succeed.”
The academic coaches in OSAD work tremendously hard to help student-athletes achieve their academic goals. Each academic coach is assigned three to four teams, sometimes more, and they are responsible for designing academic plans for each of those teams and keeping track of each student-athletes’ eligibility. Benjamin says that this is not easy work and it requires the ability to assess each teams individual needs.
“Academic coaches have individual academic plans for their teams, and each team is different, which I think is unique,” Benjamin said. “You can have teams that throw all of the student-athletes into a study hall room, and for some teams that works, and for some others it doesn’t. So we have to be creative and innovative, in a sense, to create plans that work not only with the individual team, the coaches, and their practice schedules, but with the student-athlete as well.”
Understanding the lives and demands of student-athletes is imperative to helping them achieve success in the classroom. Benjamin notes that this perspective is vital in OSAD’s work and allows them to truly focus on developing the whole student-athlete.
“A majority of our academic coaches come from being either a former student-athlete, like myself, or come from a world where athletics was the main portion of their life,” Benjamin said. “So for me personally, being a former student-athlete, a swimmer specifically, I loved my experience, and my academic coach played a vital role in developing me and my career.”
Christina Warren, a junior triple and long jumper on the Sun Devil track team, says that the help of her academic coaches has been vital to her success as a student-athlete.
“I feel like every year is different because there is a learning curve, but the way this school tends to handle student-athletes academic ambitions well. All of them (academic coaches) have been super helpful in helping me do what I want to do outside of track,” said Warren, who currently studies Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.
Warren is a Barrett, The Honors College student and aspires to become a veterinarian. Her career ambitions are a testament to the creativity and maneuvering that may be required when working with any given student-athlete.
“They’ve just been so helpful and supportive,” Warren said. “We don’t have an actual pre-vet major that gives me everything I need to get into vet school, so it’s kind of picking and choosing what I need and what I already have and making it match up to what I am doing now. They’ve all been super helpful in making that as stress-free as possible.”
Alleviating that academic stress allows Warren to focus her energy on the track. She recently took first place in the triple jump at the 2021 Willie Williams Classic/Dave Murray Distance Carnival, jumping a personal best 12.80m (42.0 ft).
All Sun Devil student-athletes have the ability to access the resources in OSAD and get the help that they need, whenever they need it. DJ Horne, a junior basketball player and transfer student-athlete from Illinois State, says that it's nice to know that he can fall back on OSAD if he feels he needs the help. When talking about going through the transfer process, Horne noted that OSAD helped him figure out what he needed to do in order to be successful at Arizona State, both on and off the basketball court.
“I put in a lot of work my first two years, as far as grades go (at Illinois State),” Horne said. “They (OSAD) set it up nicely for me to come here and feel it out on my own and see if I really needed the help. The resources are definitely there for me to use, which is nice to know.”
Horne has thrived so far as a student-athlete at Arizona State. As an Interdisciplinary Studies major concentrating in Kinesiology and Special Event Management, he posted a 4.0 GPA in the fall and was named the Male Student-Athlete of the Semester in OSAD, all while being the leading scorer on the men’s basketball team.
“It definitely meant a lot for me,” said Horne while speaking on the accomplishment. “I wasn’t really expecting it, there are a lot of smart kids at this school. So for me to win an award like that and still be able to manage basketball and succeed out here on the court, I feel like it’s just a big accomplishment.”
Student-athletes like Horne and Warren are premier examples of the success that OSAD works so hard to achieve.
“There is definitely a sense of pride,” said Benjamin when talking about student-athlete success. “This is our career, we’re here every day to help student-athletes with their academics. When you see them post their highest GPA or just progress as students throughout their career and ultimately graduate, that’s just the cherry on top, just knowing that what we’re doing is working.”
On the topic of graduation, Sun Devil Athletics achieved another all-time high in the fall of 2021 by posting a 92 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR). This is the main metric that the NCAA uses to measure academic success in Division I athletics and the 92 percent mark is tied for third highest amongst schools in the Pac-12. In each academic year since 2008, Sun Devil Athletics has either maintained or surpassed its all-time best GSR mark. This continuous growth and success indicate that the work put in by OSAD and Sun Devil student-athletes is creating tangible results as they end their collegiate careers.
These successes don’t happen without everyone in Sun Devil Athletics placing an emphasis on academic growth. The culture of creating continued academic success and developing the whole student-athlete in OSAD is spread throughout each and every coaching staff at Arizona State. Matt Hill, head coach of the men’s tennis team, says that leading all men’s sports in cumulative GPA is a huge pride point and something that has become a program standard.
“We don’t want to just win on the tennis court and have that be all that we are,” Hill said. “We want to do all things really, really well, and that’s the standard that we operate at. I couldn’t be more proud of the guys.”
Head women’s volleyball coach Sanja Tomasevic says that the cumulative success of student-athletes in the classroom makes her feel like the athletic program, as a whole, is emphasizing the right things.
“It makes me really happy,” said Tomasevic. “We are setting them up for life, not just for right now. I always say to them, you don’t want to just identify with being a volleyball player. Even if you go pro, it’s going to end one day. So you have to get in the good habit of doing your job and keeping up with your obligations so you can get the results that you want. It’s about teaching them the process.”
From the GPA and GSR numbers that have been achieved, it is evident that the emphasis on the success and development of the whole student-athlete is simply a standard within Sun Devil Athletics. The work that has been done by OSAD, the coaches, and most importantly, the student-athletes, has allowed Sun Devil Athletics to stay true to its mission of being a model for athletic achievement and academic success. Continuing that standard of success is exactly what OSAD and those who work with Sun Devil student-athletes intend to do.
“I think it’s a result of the culture that we bring in this office and the expectations,” Benjamin said. “If you look at years past, the GPA has increased, it’s gotten progressively better, and I think we’re bringing in student-athletes that not only handle their business on the court, the field, the pool, whatever it may be, but also in the classroom. And if they aren’t academically strong, we have a program, we have a plan to get that student-athlete to where they need to be and it all comes from the culture that OSAD has had since I got here six years ago.”
The culture of excellence has certainly fostered a great spirit amongst Sun Devil student-athletes, as they have more than met the high expectations set forth by OSAD. The achievements of all Sun Devil student-athletes would not be possible without the dedicated staff who continue to facilitate the prestige and accolades of Sun Devil Athletics.
