Football has been hard at work debunking the stereotype of the football player student-athlete with 38 graduated football players from the class of 2014.
Graduate school, full ride scholarships, coaching, working and playing football abroad are just a few things that last years’ football seniors are doing now.
Head football coach Keith Buckley increased his staff by hiring on nine seniors from last year to help coach, drive and motivate the 2014-2015 football.
While some football graduates have pursued careers in coaching, many other graduates have taken various paths and are pursuing careers that push the football player stereotype to the brink.
Among the successful graduates are Sean Dalton, TC Campbell, Hunter Dassionville, Seth Siddle-Mitchell, Devin Lagoria, Gunther Schultze and Craig Bailey.
Dalton, Campbell Dassionville and Siddle-Mitchell are pursuing higher education degrees after graduating from Pacific.
Dalton received a full ride scholarship to Oregon State University for Public Health and Campbell was accepted into the University of Portland and is studying engineering.
Dassionville also studied engineering at the University of Oregon while Siddle-Mitchell is studying aerospace engineering at San Diego State University.
“I think that anytime that there is a group of people the size the football team is, there is always the chance that you get lumped in the stereotype and the advantage of a small school is that students get to see them in class and see how driven they are academically, Buckley said.
While football players tend to get less than favorable reputations at small liberal arts schools, it just serves to fuel the fire that motivates them to be academically successful.
Study hall, study sessions and maintaining a grade standard are just a few things that coach Buckley encourages for all his players to show their dedication to academics and studies off the field.
“If my players come in conflict, academics take precedence,” he said. “If their grades are bad then they get hooked directly to the learning center in order to help keep them on track.
With such encouragement and a strong focus on academics, football players have been among the top graduates in the 2014 class.
While the stereotype of football players and student-athletes in general remains on campus, coach Buckley and his players are proving that they are more opening more doors than just the one to the film screening room.
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