This article is part of a special series, “Just the Right Time,” featuring some of our outstanding Adult Learners.
Note: The average age of graduates in the Class of 2024 is 35. About 83 percent of the Class of 2024 — over 24,000 graduates — earned their degrees through Liberty University Online Programs. As an innovator in distance learning for 40 years, Liberty has a longstanding tradition of serving working professionals, veterans and service members, parents, and grandparents. It’s why Liberty remains one of the country’s largest online education providers.
For many athletes who have competed at the highest levels in their sport, finding ways to impact the world post-career can be a challenge. For Jeremy Staat (’16, ’18, ’23), his path was shaped by experiences that landed him in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in the deserts of Iraq, and now back in his hometown impacting the next generation of skilled workers.
The dream of being more than just a football player goes back to his days at his hometown Bakersfield (Calif.) College, where he was a star offensive lineman and tight end.
“I never really had any expectations of moving on past Bakersfield,” said Staat, who was named an All-American honorable mention in football. “I figured I’d go there for two years, play, and then move onto something else. I grew up in the trades, you know, digging ditches or pouring concrete. I thought I was going to be a contractor, and I had no desires really past that.”
At one point, he actually walked away from the game to help out his family, but his coach saw potential and encouraged him to return. It was a moment to remember in his faith walk.
“That was one of those life lessons where if you commit to something, you fulfill it,” he said. “For me, it fell back on the verse (Ecclesiastes 9:10) that says whatever your hands or feet find to do, do it to the best of your ability for God. And since that day, I’ve strived to live by that.”
After two years at Bakersfield, Staat transferred to Arizona State, where he would play defensive tackle and compile national recognitions. He was presented the Morris Trophy as the best defensive lineman in the Pac-10 Conference in 1997 and helped the Sun Devils to their second-ever Rose Bowl. He played alongside his friend and teammate Pat Tillman, the football great who left his career behind to serve in the U.S. Army following the attacks of Sept. 11 and was killed by friendly fire while deployed in Afghanistan.
Staat was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1998 with the 41st overall pick, which is where he would spend a majority of his time in the league, starting 11 games in the 1999 season. He had stints with the Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, and the St. Louis Rams. But even in the NFL, Staat was preparing for a life post-football. After the events of Sept. 11, he desired to follow Tillman’s example and eventually joined the Marine Corps, carrying on a family tradition of service to his country; his father served in Vietnam and his grandfather in WWII.
“I knew I never wanted to serve a one-dimensional life,” he said. “I thought it’d be so boring to just be known for football, and I thought to myself, ‘How’s the best way to serve God and His people?’”
In 2007, Staat was deployed with the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines Regiment and spent seven months in Iraq as an infantry machine gunner.
But it wasn’t until after a few years in service that he realized the advice he was giving the younger men in his unit was something he never applied to himself.
“These kids were getting out at 21 or 22 with combat deployments, and I told them not to forget about their education and to use their GI Bill,” Staat said. “Then I realized I was a hypocrite because I never got my own bachelor’s degree, and here I was telling them to further their education.”
Upon returning from Iraq and leaving the military, Staat made good on his own advice and completed his degree from Arizona State in 2009. But that wouldn’t be the end of his academic pursuits. Growing up around the trade skills, Staat always had a knack for being good with his hands, so he started teaching welding at Bakersfield and began looking for a postgraduate program with teacher licensure. He found the Master of Education: Administration and Supervision through Liberty University Online Programs and graduated in 2016.
“God just always has His ways of making things work, sometimes not even on our time.”
— Jeremy Staat (’16, ’18, ’23)
“I fell in love with Liberty when I came out for intensives,” Staat said. “The campus is beautiful, and the people are great; I really wish I had heard about it when I was looking for an undergrad. All I could think about was playing a game in (Williams Stadium) that day.”
With a strong belief in making the trade skills a priority in education and a desire to grow the welding program into a pipeline for industries, Staat would go on to earn two more degrees in educational leadership from Liberty: Education Specialist (Ed.S.) in 2018 and Doctor of Education, which he completed in November.
The verses from Ecclesiastes still ring true in his life, as he now uses his hands in a literal sense to teach others how to use their God-given abilities. He launched Spark Academy, a welding school for young people and veterans to learn valuable trade skills, and he continues to be a motivational speaker through the Jeremy Staat Foundation, telling his story of overcoming doubt around the country.
“God just always has His ways of making things work, sometimes not even on our time. So, my vision for Spark Academy is already in full effect,” Staat said. “And I want to take my family with me, show them the world, and go to universities or businesses and show them a positive idea of what it’s going to take to be successful, no matter where you’re from.”
Read other profiles in this series:
