How D3 Student-Athletes Build Careers Beyond Sports

Commitment Behind NCAA D3 Athletics

Each of the three student-athletes faced a stiff test of their own.

For Johnson, it arrived in August 2011, on his first day of practice with the Augustana men’s soccer team. Less than a minute late, he approached Thorson-Lucken Field to find his new teammates already warming up.

“I was running sprints the whole practice,” he said. “It really made me realize that it was a whole ‘nother ball game.”

Onyiriuka saw the premium on expectations through a different lens.

Guided by the legendary Mike Neer, the 25th-winningest coach in D3 men’s basketball history, the Yellowjackets compiled a 97-17 record over the previous four seasons, including three NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four berth.

Standing 6-foot-7, he entered a championship-caliber rotation anchored by two-time All-American Seth Hauben, a fellow big man with a strong drive to perform. Onyiriuka, a soon-to-be financial economics major, capitalized on the opportunity, averaging 9.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while helping Rochester advance to the 2005 D3 men’s basketball title game.

“At the time, I think I took that [time] for granted,” he said.

Price’s exposure to Middlebury women’s lacrosse was far from ordinary. Her freshman year unfolded as the COVID-19 pandemic upended Division III athletics, forcing the NCAA to cancel all nine winter championships in 2021 after participation dipped below the levels needed to sustain them.

With no matches to prep for, Price trained on her own, waiting as the moments she spent her life anticipating kept drifting further away.

When the program returned to the field in the fall, pandemic-related NCAA rules temporarily permitted Middlebury 15 coach-led practices, a significant departure from the D3 norm of captain-led offseason activities. Given that some teammates were unfamiliar with one another’s tendencies, those sessions became a crucial introduction.

“We were all wearing masks, and defenders were standing six feet away from attackers,” Price said. “None of it made sense.”

Whereas Johnson’s grit was shaped by consequences and Onyiriuka by shouldering responsibility, Price recognized the value of persevering in the shadow of adversity.

_{Sources: NCAA Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete; NCAA 2025 GOALS Study, Division III Key Findings; NCAA Division III Presidents Council.}

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Division III: Where Winning Becomes the Baseline

When the Panthers’ NESCAC schedule resumed in March 2022, Price and Co. were fueled by a year of what-ifs.

“Our motto was ‘meet the moment,’” she said.

They converted and never looked back. Middlebury’s five-year championship streak — interrupted by just two regular-season losses — has spanned Price’s collegiate tenure. Her 11 goals told only part of the story. In a deep rotation, cohesion is a standard of excellence.

“Everyone chose to be there because they love the game,” Price said.

“We talk a lot about being great teammates,” Panthers head coach Kate Livesay added. “You get what you give.”

Johnson also internalized a degree of accountability. What began as an inauspicious first taste of the program grew into four years of consistency, culminating in an Augustana-record 1.16 goals-against average and a spot among the all-time leaders in wins, saves and shutouts.

Conversely, his neuroscience coursework was less theoretical. Studying how student-athletes handle high-stakes situations and behave in real time, he found himself living the research every time he stepped into goal.

For Onyiriuka, the Yellowjackets’ winning culture was most evident during his senior campaign. Rochester made another deep postseason run before it was abruptly halted. A Sweet 16 exit, four years after reaching the biggest stage, carries emotional weight.

By graduation, he ranked among the program’s all-time greats in points, rebounds and blocks. Nevertheless, he wasn’t satisfied with the end result.

It’s always been about having a chip on my shoulder. You’re either progressing, or you’re regressing.

— said Onyiruka, a 2013 Wendy’s College Classic Hall of Fame inductee

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D3 Triumphs in the Real World

Leaving college doesn’t mean leaving adversity behind. These D3 alumni, however, draw on a fortitude forged through athletics.

Price currently serves as a new business representative at Plaid, a financial technology company that supports digital banking infrastructure. She builds partnerships from the ground up, exploring where it fits into platforms across credit and wealth management.

At Middlebury, Price learned to compete without the scoreboard. At Plaid, she’s found a different kind of balancing act: navigating multiple stakeholders, rarely knowing how close she is to a decision.

“You obviously hear ‘no’ a lot,” Price said. “You have to stay resilient and composed under pressure.”

Following a professional soccer pursuit that took him through Germany and England, Johnson eventually suited up for Olympia FC in Tasmania during the 2018 season. Upon returning home to the Chicagoland area, Johnson created SwitchedOn Training: a mobile performance platform that challenges users to process sensory cues and respond with movement, sharpening reaction time, agility, and split-second judgment.

He’s the co-founder and CEO, steering product development and directing the training content that powers the experience.

I didn’t really know how to build it at first. I just kept pushing until I could make it real.

Onyiriuka’s career arc took him to Wall Street. After five years at Goldman Sachs, he landed on a sales trading desk at BTIG, working with portfolio managers and institutional investors to execute trades under pressure.

The market moves like a matchup zone: always shifting, never telegraphing. Playing in a system alongside demanding upperclassmen offered business preparation no classroom could replicate.

“For a functioning team, everyone has to put in effort,” Onyiriuka said. “That’s where it becomes incumbent on you, especially if you’re one of the better players, to bring others along. Not to default to frustration when someone doesn’t deliver. Finding ways to make the group better rather than pointing out their shortcomings.”

That’s what four years in D3 athletics does. It cultivates leaders.