As graduation day nears, many college students begin to research and think about job opportunities. Even in the underclass years before then, students seek out internships and career development opportunities. The Virginia football program wants to make sure its players prepare for those possibilities as well.
To assist with that process, the UVA football program and the Virginia Football Alumni Club presented the Cavaliers’ 2023 Career Kickoff event on Wednesday at The Forum Hotel at the University’s Darden School of Business. The event, part of a multi-day series sponsored by Ford Mays Wealth Management, The Good Feet Store, and Cav Futures Foundation, aimed to bring current football student-athletes together with Virginia football alumni and business representatives to network, advise, and present potential career paths.
Doug Duenkel, a member or the Virginia Football Alumni Club, said that 48 former Cavalier players and 60 companies came to Wednesday’s fair to help facilitate that goal. On Tuesday, there was another networking reception for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year players as well. He noted that the first edition of this event in 2022 ended up with 100% placement for players that were seeking jobs. Jobs are not guaranteed, but the networking alone can help players land in a good spot eventually.
“I don’t think just today, but the last week, the football staff has done a lot to put us in good spots,” Virginia senior tight end Grant Misch said. “Trey Womack came in and spoke to us, Doug Duenkel speak to us, social event last night, and this so the culmination of all that just puts you in a good position. Some people like to say, I went to UVA, I’ll find a job but you still have to go out there and put yourself forward. This is an opportunity that just comes right to us. We’re not having to go out there and do it on our own so it’s been really nice.”
It’s an opportunity that the football alumni in attendance appreciated and wished existed previously.
Trey Womack graduated from UVA in 2010 and currently works at the University of Florida’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. He noted that this type of event does not take place everywhere across the college landscape. Womack spoke to the team Tuesday and provided reminders before the networking fair began Wednesday based on his time at Aerotek, a recruitment and staff agency. Part of that included the STAR method, standing for Situation, Task, Action, and Result that players can relate to easily as members of a team.
Kase Luzar, who currently works with Lightbulb Machine and graduated from Virginia in 2003, echoed that there weren’t many opportunities like this previously. Program alumni from other states like New York, Ohio, Texas, and North Carolina came to the fair in order to support the current players. It’s an opportunity to show the current Cavaliers the importance of building relationships and it gives alumni the chance to share their career journeys as well.
For young men in their late teens and early 20’s trying to figure out what possibilities exist if football doesn’t work out, it’s an excellent resource right at their doorstep. Misch said you can learn about something you didn’t know you had interest in during an event like this.
“We care about these guys and want to see them have every opportunity that they can have,” Luzar said. “So very important to just share what an industry, what a role looks like, what the real world looks like – having some of that knowledge before you step out into it is a lot better than flying blind and playing ping pong with your career.”
Importantly, no one was discouraging any professional football hopes or minimizing any football dreams. The career event is meant more as a professional development opportunity for the day that football ends whenever that is. And it will end at some point obviously.
Current Virginia coach Tony Elliott said he tries to present the holistic view to current players. The goal for many athletes obviously is to make it professionally and that is something they should chase. It’s important, however, to not ignore options. The fact is that most don’t make it to the NFL – 1.6% per NFL.com – and even those that do, careers often don’t last for extended years.
Elliott said that most UVA players come in with great perspective on the long-term view and appreciate the career fair.
“Most athletes have a dream of playing professionally and they kind of associate that dream with the dream of taking care of their family,” Elliott said. “One of the things I try to point out to the guys is the ultimate dream is to take care of your family and if that’s the case, then you need to position yourself with every possible opportunity. So play as long as you can and if it’s a vehicle that gets you to the league, that’s great but that vehicle is going to run out of gas early in life and you’re going to have to switch to another vehicle. So you need to have your education taken care of, you need to have your professional development taken care of so it’s a great opportunity.”
Duenkel helped organize these events for that exact reason. The hope is to add a continuing education element to it in future years as well. He left this year’s event impressed with how current Virginia players handled communication skills, how open they are in conversations, and how prepared they appeared to be for the opportunity.
It’s not something that has been difficult to find buy in for from the outside either. The athletic administration has been very supportive of the event. Virginia football alumni like Luzar readily jumped at the chance to participate. Duenkel said that it was “amazing” to be able to raise sponsorship funs for the event in a single day.
It all lines up with showing the current players and potential employers alike why a student-athlete from the University of Virginia can be a great asset to a team.
“The degree speaks for itself, but as a player, these players have gone through adversity, they’re resilient, they’re team-oriented, they’re competitive – they have all the attributes of what an employer would want,” Duenkel said. “It was very easy to sign up companies that wanted to be a part of this.”
