Featured Alumni

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, [...]

United States Sport Academy master’s degree alumna Dr. Linda Hilgenbrinck has spent almost her entire career helping young people with adapted needs through physical education, working at every level of education for more than 30 years. The 2012 National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year, Hilgenbrinck earned her Master of Sports Science degree in sports fitness and health management from the Academy in 1984 and holds a Ph.D. in adapted physical education from Texas Women’s University. She works as an Adapted Physical Education Specialist within the Denton (Texas) Independent School District (ISD), serving students with adapted needs in eight schools and at every age level from kindergarten through high school. “Even though I earned my master’s degree a while ago, I still use the things I learned from the [...]

Mike Leach, a two-time national coach of the year and former United States Sports Academy Alumnus of the Year, was recently hired as the head football coach at Mississippi State University. Leach is known as the mastermind behind the “Air Raid” offense that has put up huge offensive numbers in his head coaching stops and Washington State and Texas Tech and also when he was an assistant coach at Kentucky. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in American studies and earning his Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine University School of Law – where he originally planned to be an attorney – Leach decided to take a different career path as a football coach.  He earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports coaching from the [...]

In late October 2018, Byron Cunningham earned a promotion within the athletic training staff of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams organization. One year later, Cunningham was named the United States Sports Academy’s Alumnus of the Year for 2019. Cunningham is the director of rehabilitation and assistant athletic trainer for the Rams’ award winning training staff. He spent the previous eight seasons as a physical therapist and assistant athletic trainer for the Rams. A native of Mobile, Ala., Cunningham earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports medicine from the Academy in 2002. The Alumnus of the Year Award is given to the year’s most outstanding Academy graduate and the honoree must represent the ideals of sport and of the institution. “The Academy was the best of both worlds for [...]

West Florence (S.C.) High School boys’ basketball coach Daryl Jarvis learned more than just the X’s and O’s of coaching while pursuing his master’s degree from the United States Sports Academy. Jarvis holds a Master of Sports Science degree in sports management from the Academy. He led the West Florence boys to their first region title since 1992 in his first season there after being hired by the school in May 2018. “The Academy gave me insight into all of the administrative parts of the job,” Jarvis said. “Sports management and coaching are about more than just the X’s and O’s and jimmies and joes. From facilities, to money management/budgeting within the program, marketing, the laws that need to be followed in certain situations, liability and so many other things [...]

Dr. Marty Durden completed his United States Sports Academy doctoral degree with a dissertation that researched how “servant leadership” from high school coaches motivated their athletes on the basketball court. Now, Durden says he’s become an evangelist for the servant-leadership style of coaching. Durden is the athletic director at Presbyterian School in Houston, Texas. He earned his Doctor of Education degree in sports management from the Academy in 2016 and is the author of a recent Sport Digest piece titled “The Call for a Higher Standard Than Winning” that also touches on the subject of servant-leadership in coaching. “Servant leadership is an idea that I learned about from a book by William Turner which detailed how the successful business man treated his employees,” Durden said. “I read the book in [...]

Master’s degree holder Wayne Burley has one of the more unique jobs among the United States Sports Academy’s more than 5,000 graduates around the world. Burley is one of roughly 150 people in the world who are trained to teach the C.O.B.R.A. (Combat Objective Battle Ready Application) personal defense system. He earned his Master of Sports Science degree in sports health and fitness management from the Academy in 1987. A sixth-degree black belt, Burley is the owner of Tri-County Martial Arts in Waynesburg, Ohio. The gym teaches personal self-defense courses, Karate, cardio kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the C.O.B.R.A. system, among others. The C.O.B.R.A. system was created by a law enforcement officer in 2002 and follows a similar pattern used in police academies, but focuses on civilian safety. The system offers [...]