For many students who are fortunate enough to call themselves a Life University (Life U) Running Eagle, peak athletic performance is paramount to personal and professional success. Life U is honored to support a student-athlete population that accounts for 25% of total enrollment, according to the Fall Quarter 2024 Factbook.. To put that more into perspective, 60% of undergraduate students at Life U are classified as student-athletes. Bottom line, that’s a huge segment of the Life U community that puts their all into participating in both collegiate athletics and academics at a high level.

Life University Athletics administration has a vital responsibility to create and sustain campus athletics in a manner that mindfully supports current and future students to succeed not only in Athletics but also in all areas of life.

Jayme Pendergast, Director of Athletics, released an announcement video in April 2025 outlining six new task forces within Life U Athletics to not only improve operational mastery but also to “move from a growth mindset to one of sustained success.”

 

Here at Life U, we aren’t satisfied with merely sticking to the status quo. We are constantly examining what works best within our established systems and reevaluating what could be improved. As it refers to Athletics, the focus areas that are currently seeing changes include:

  • Balcony Leadership

Great leaders lead by example. How can we lead from perspective, from the top?

  • Performance Nutrition

Life University strongly values nutrition with a purpose, in this case, to fuel our athletes to whole health and wellness, as well as academic and sports excellence. With guidance from our sports health dietitian, our goal is to continue to find new avenues to support student-athlete success.

  • Substance Education

Fostering an environment of understanding while also holding our student-athletes to a higher standard is a balancing act that all collegiate athletics programs face. How do we evolve our policies around drug testing and substance abuse to better reflect our values and accountability standards?

  • Student-Athlete Experience

What specific steps can be taken to make the overall student-athlete experience more meaningful for our students?

  • Social Media Optimization

How can we cut through the noise and share the stories and content that really matter to the Life U community? The hope is to create a unified, recognizable digital voice and footprint so that those we interact with have a clear vision of who we are as an Athletic Department and a University.

  • Shared Spaces

Sure, sharing is caring, but it isn’t always simple in an intimate scholastic environment, especially when you have multiple teams needing to practice, play and train in a constantly overlapping Venn diagram. How can we improve the use and care of our shared athletic facilities, from fields to closets to training areas?

This initiative and taking the time to address these questions is all about leveraging our strengths, addressing our blind spots and making small, smart changes that add up over time. We are excited and grateful to include staff and students in this process, to see where this takes Life University Athletics in the future.