Featured Alumni

United States Sports Academy master’s degree holder Lorenzo Canalis, the winningest women’s soccer coach in Berry College history, recently announced his plan to retire after 25 seasons leading the Vikings on the pitch. A native of Torino, Italy, Canalis earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy in 1991. He served as the Vikings’ women’s soccer coach since 1995 and amassed a 322-137-37 record. He coached 39 All-Southern Athletic Association (SAA) selections, 130 SAA Academic Honor Roll honorees, a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, and led the team to a 2014 Southern Athletic Association regular-season championship. He was also named the SAA's Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2014. Like many of the Academy’s degree holders and students, Canalis studied with the institution while he [...]

An experienced collegiate athletics administrator with more than a decade of work on her resume, United States Sports Academy alumna Dr. Monique Carroll was recently hired to lead the athletic programs at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. Carroll earned her Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy in 2012 before earning her doctoral degree in sports management from Northcentral University. A native of New Boston, Texas, Carroll previously served as Deputy Athletic Director for Internal Operations and Senior Woman Administrator at South Carolina State University. In that role, she served as the sport administrator for 10 sports. In addition to serving as a sport administrator, Carroll oversaw various units including, business operations, compliance, academics, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, ticketing, sports information, and game day operations. [...]

United States Sports Academy doctoral degree holder Dr. Marty Durden is taking his brand of “servant-leadership” and nearly five decades of athletic leadership to a new position at Calvary Christian School in Columbus, Ga. Durden earned his Doctor of Education degree in sports management from the Academy in 2016 and has written extensively about the “servant-leader” model of coaching, including in a 2019 Sport Digest piece titled “The Call for a Higher Standard Than Winning.” Durden is the new athletic director at Calvary Christian School in Columbus, Ga. Durden is a veteran coach whose teams have won state championships in basketball, baseball, football, and golf over the span of nearly five decades. He previously worked as the athletic director at Presbyterian School in Houston, and has also has worked as [...]

United States Sports Academy master’s degree alumnus Patrick Catullo was recently promoted to be the director of athletics at the University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Fredericksburg, Va. Catullo earned his Master of Sports Science degree in Sports Management from the Academy in 2000. He’s also a 1995 graduate of UMW and had served as the interim director of athletics for the school since 2018. Catullo said the Academy’s flexible distance learning options allowed him to pursue his master’s degree while continuing to work in collegiate athletics. “After determining that I wanted to pursue a career in college athletics, the Academy really helped me learn and understand all that was involved in sports coaching and administration and how it related to college athletics,” Catullo said. “I was working as a [...]

Soccer coach Martin Clayes said his master’s degree from the United States Sports Academy made him competitive among job applicants and ultimately led to him being hired to lead a soccer program at the collegiate level. Clayes, a native of Perth, Scotland, earned his Master of Sports Science degree in Sports Coaching from the Academy in 2013. Clayes, who was recently hired to coach both the men’s and women’s soccer teams at East Central College in Missouri, said his Academy studies boosted his career even before he completed the master’s program. “I decided to pursue my master’s degree after I was a finalist for a head coaching position I did not get because the ‘other guy’ had a master’s,” Clayes said. “Because I was already working as a full time assistant [...]

Dr. Tim Rice, a longtime coach and administrator at the collegiate, high school, and international levels has been named as an assistant coach for the Ireland men’s Under 20 National Basketball Team. Rice holds two degrees from the United States Sports Academy and is a member of the institution’s national faculty, credentialed to teach its sports education programs at home and its post-secondary, non-degree programs abroad. Rice earned his Master of Sports Science degree in Sports Management in 1999 and completed his Doctor of Education degree in Sports Management in 2005. He has served as a member of the Academy’s national faculty since 2008. “The Academy has been a huge part of my life for a long time, and it has made a huge impact on my life as well,” [...]

Mike Behymer has worked at the upper levels of sports marketing, sales, and management and was the United States Sports Academy’s 1995 Alumnus of the Year for his work in Major League Baseball. Now, Behymer has embarked on a new venture as the Vice President for Client Development with True Media, a company in Kansas City, Mo., that specializes in media strategy and communications. Behymer earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy in 1987 worked as the marketing and sales director for Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals between 1989 and 1988. “I think the thing I appreciate the most from my Academy education was the great mentorship opportunity it provided to me,” Behymer said. “I was supposed to do my master’s degree internship [...]

Vicky Bullett has played basketball at every level imaginable. The West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) women’s basketball coach and United States Sports Academy graduate can even count the name “Olympian” among her many accomplishments on the court. Bullett is in her fourth season coaching WVWC’s Lady Bobcats, who compete at the NCAA’s Division II level. She earned her Master of Sports Science degree in sports coaching from the Academy in 2015, having earned her degree while she coached and taught at Hagerstown Community College in Maryland. “The Academy was beneficial to me, and it especially helped me to become a head coach at the DII level,” Bullett said. “I was able to earn my master’s degree while continuing to work as a coach and teacher. The Academy taught me that, [...]