After hiring Kenny Dillingham as the ASU football head coach back in 2022, the University made one thing very clear: The experience and passion that an alumnus coach brings to their sport is invaluable to the Sun Devil athletic community.
Now, ASU is home to 10 alumni head coaches across a broad spectrum of sports, with each coach delivering a unique approach to their team, rooted in their formative years as a Sun Devil.
ASU's newest addition to its alumni head coach roster came earlier this year when Adam Meyer, a former middle-distance track and field runner, took the helm as the cross country head coach. For Meyer, an Arizona native, joining the track team was as simple as calling up the coach and asking for a spot on the roster.
"I shot the coach an email and said, 'Hey, can I walk on?'" Meyer said. "He replied back and pretty much said, 'You're on the team.'"
After five years with the Sun Devils and a handful of seasons coaching at Park University and UNLV, Meyer received the call from director of track and field and cross country Dion Miller asking him to coach the program that he used to run for.
Meyer, whose last season running at ASU was in 2021-22, said he's "not that far removed" from the Sun Devil athlete experience and uses this to guide how he approaches coaching runners in the same situations that he was once in.
"There's a lot of shared experiences that come with that and that allow me to create these relationships with my student athletes and, as their coach, to help guide them throughout their Sun Devil athletics journey," Meyer said.
Meyer is joined by alumni coaches who have been with the University for many years, including women's head golf coach Missy Farr-Kaye. In her 11th year with the program, Farr-Kaye is continuing the tradition that began in the late '80s when she joined the team, or perhaps back in 1899, when her great-great-grandmother received a teaching diploma from the Normal School of Arizona, ASU's previous name.
"I'm very aware that every day I represent all of our alumni," Farr-Kaye said. "(The golfers) represent really a tremendous legacy."
Farr-Kaye makes her adoration for her alma mater central to her coaching and encourages her golfers to continuously embody the work ethic and successes of those who came before them.
"They came up with something that I'm so proud of that it's on our golf bags this year (and) it's in our locker room," Farr-Kaye said. "It's #Livetheleg ... short for 'live the legacy.'"
However, not all of ASU's alumni head coaches have deep-rooted ties to Arizona or to ASU itself; women's water polo head coach Petra Pardi was recruited to join the Sun Devils when she was a high schooler in Budapest, Hungary.
ASU offered Pardi the opportunity and support to continue playing the sport that she loves. Her deep gratitude and knowledge of the University have become central to who she is as a person and as a coach.
A level of care and understanding of what athletes are going through is also important to Pardi because she experienced the same mischief, late nights and falling on her face.
Meyer shares a similar sentiment with how he connects and relates to his runners.
"I went to these same meets," Meyer said. "I trained at these same facilities. The weight room coach who's still here was my weight room coach in college."
Alongside the impact of maintaining connections within the University and understanding the shared experiences with their Sun Devil athletes, these coaches emphasize that an athlete's time on their team doesn't end when they graduate.
"I want them to have the same friendships in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, that I have, that we're all fellow Sun Devils," Farr-Kaye said. "That's really important to me, and it drives me every day."
Whether they return to coach, visit as alumni or simply maintain their relationships with teammates and coaches, Pardi, Farr-Kaye and Meyer all highlight the persistence of ASU sports in the lives of its athletes.
Among these coaches' experiences exists the deeper story that this university has to tell about how it cultivates some of the strongest relationships among athletes, coaches and the many legacies they are proud to represent.
"I am so thankful that everything worked out exactly as it did because all the great things in my life are because I became a Sun Devil," Pardi said.
Edited by Alan Deutschendorf, Senna James and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at bcsmit41@asu.edu.
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Brooklyn Smith is a sports reporter for The State Press and an English student at ASU. She is in her 1st semester with The State Press.
