Jennie Benning

Sitting in a meeting @CycloneFB with Micah, I couldn't help but snap this picture. 📸
Right there, I was reminded why I built GRIT. So many parents walk into these visits for the first time without knowing what colleges truly expect, and I want every family to walk in prepared and confident.
Iowa State was an amazing place, with the feel of a small college and the competition of the Big 12. And before the weekend was over, I found myself in the stands cheering on Caleb and @HuskerFootball as they took down Michigan State. 🙌
But the real story isn't the campus or the scoreboard. It's the people who made it possible. Colleen, Katie, and my parents were the rides, the gap-fillers, and the catch-all for everything I couldn't be there for. ❤️
That's what parenting athletes is really about: the village, the family love, and the love of the game. 🥎🏈

#GRIT #GettingItRightInMyTransition #AthleteParents #RecruitingJourney #ItTakesAVillage #GoBigRed #Cyclones

This is amazing! #NeverQuit

As I watch college coaches getting ridiculed for how kids are acting, responding, or carrying themselves, I can’t help but think about teachers.
Teachers are judged every day by how students perform, behave, respond, and ultimately what they become. Yet so often, we place that responsibility almost entirely on the teacher.
College coaches can make an astronomical amount of money compared to teachers, but both are working with young people who are still learning how to communicate, handle adversity, accept accountability, and make good decisions.
So I wonder…
What would our school systems look like if teachers were compensated at the level of our highest-paid college coaches—but kids continued to respond with, “It’s cool,” “I don’t care,” or “It doesn’t matter”?
Would we expect more from the adults?
Would we expect more from the students?
Or would we have a bigger conversation about what it really takes to develop a young person?
That’s one of the reasons GRIT exists.
We spend so much time preparing athletes to compete on the field or court. But are we preparing the student to compete in the classroom, communicate with adults, handle disappointment, accept accountability, and advocate for themselves?
Coaches matter.
Teachers matter.
Parents matter.
Culture matters.
But ultimately, the student has to own their choices.
GRIT isn’t about blaming anyone. It’s about recognizing that developing a student-athlete takes all of us.
Because the goal isn’t simply to get a kid to the next level of sports.
The goal is to make sure they’re ready for the next level of life.
GRIT — Built for More Than the Game.

Parents — have you looked at your athlete's grades this week?

We plugged real numbers into GRIT's free GPA calculator: 3 classes, 4 weeks of grades, under 2 minutes. The result? A rolling GPA of 2.97 — a real, current number instead of a guess.

That's the whole point of checking in. You find out exactly where your student-athlete stands on NCAA eligibility (D1 min: 2.3 / D2 min: 2.2) before it's too late to do anything about it.

Plug in your child's numbers and know in seconds where they stand 👇 grittransition.com/grit_day1_buil…

#GRITTransition #StudentAthlete #NCAAEligibility #ParentCheckIn #KnowTheNumbers