Bearcat Football Team Makes Great Strides in the Classroom

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- Since the addition of Football Head Coach Isaac Parker to the Willamette University coaching staff in December of 2018, the Bearcat football team has made tremendous strides in the classroom. The Bearcats have improved from a team grade point average of 2.3 in the fall of 2018 to a team GPA of 3.3 in the spring of 2020.

For Parker, there are four key components to improving a team's academic success:  1. Showing that you care, 2. Managing Time, 3. Learn about yourself, 4. Find resources. It all starts with the coaching staff caring about their student-athletes.

"The greatest thing was showing sincere care for individual people and their academics," Parker said. "Without that, your programming won't work."

Once the student-athletes realize that their coaches truly care about them, the coaching staff can provide help with the remaining three components. On the Willamette football team, student-athletes with lower than a 2.5 GPA meet with a coach every week and determine ways to get better. Student-athletes with a 2.5 to 3.0 GPA meet with a coach every other week about their academic successes, problems, and options. Along the way, the coaching staff reinforces the desire for everyone to improve.

"Our coaches put in a lot of work, and they do a really good job of knowing their athletes' class assignments and needs," Parker said. "Our programming helps student-athletes with their time and life organization."

"We talk a lot about time management and using Google Calendar," said Assistant Coach Jacob Hales, who also serves as the team's academic success coordinator. "It helps our players stay on task academically and make the most of their already limited time."

Just as the team prepares a plan of attack for each game, the coaches work with players to create plans for studying and improving in the classroom.

"We developed 'Academic Game Plans' that help us keep players accountable to their professors' expectations throughout the semester," Hales explained.

"My GPA has greatly improved since Coach Parker took over ... through our regular meetings with coaches about academics to the accountability that he wants us to develop as people," said Brayden Mills (Sr./Jr., TE, Woodinville, WA/Inglemoor HS). 

"Coach Parker has an academic success program in place that helps us greatly," Mills continued. "We meet with coaches every other week to go over assignments that are upcoming and that were just due during the past two weeks. This personally helps me be more organized, which leads to better time management. This has ultimately been a recipe for success for me since Coach Parker has taken over."

"I have been utilizing what Willamette has to offer for academic success," said Dom Torres (Jr., DL, North Salt Lake, UT/Woods Cross HS). "Coach Parker has helped me with time management, which has helped me get my work done earlier. The regular meetings with the coaches have been extremely helpful. Whether it's having a coach assist me with my papers, or just being able to have everything planned out in the Google Calendar."

Additional support was provided by getting each team member to support all of the other players on the team. With everyone working together toward common goals -- both on the field and in the classroom -- it was easier for each student-athlete to contribute to the increased team GPA.

"We use our 'team culture' to help motivate our players so they can accomplish their academic goals," Hales aid. "We affectionately call it the 3x3." Each part has its own acronym ... "ABT: Always Be Together; CTC:  Control The Controllables; PTG:  Play the Game! (Do it)."

"I think our regular meetings with coaches were a large factor, but I also think that the culture Coach Parker has put in place motivates people to be the best that they can be on the field, as a person, and in the classroom," Mills commented. "That plays a large factor in the success of the team on the field but also in the classroom."

When the team achieved a high GPA in the spring of 2020 it confirmed that the efforts of the student-athletes had indeed led to significant improvement since the fall of 2018. It was rewarding for everyone involved.

"Improving our team GPA to 3.3 is amazing. With most people on a roster improving that significantly in one year is impressive. Coach Parker and the rest of the coaching staff have set a high bar and challenged the team to be better in all aspects of college," Torres said.

"Having the team GPA be a 3.3 was incredible, but realistically I think we are a smart enough group of individuals to have a 3.5," Mills said. "A lot of attending college is learning how to allocate your time properly to achieve success in the classroom."

The coaches are exceptionally pleased with the players' academic improvement and success.

"It's been great to see our players have learning experiences in the classroom, and to see the positive energy from those experiences carry over into other parts of their lives," Hales commented. "Our goal as coaches is to have every player end the semester with a 3.0. Everything else is icing on the cake!

"We did not do it alone," Hales said. "We had a ton of help from Jessica Cardinal-Lanier, student support advisor at Willamette, and Kelvin Clark, Willamette's director of academic support, among others."

"I believe the key to such a big improvement in team GPA has been the coaches really paying attention and wanting us to be better in the classroom and break the stigma," Torres said. "Another key is that the rest of the team has really been helping everyone out. Whether it be utilizing guys who major in classes that others struggle with or just studying together. The team and the coaches have begun to really care about the grades of everyone on the team."