The student-athlete experience for senior Mitch Kendra has been anything but typical. Competing with the Waynesburg University football team as a wide receiver and participating in both indoor and outdoor track & field with the Yellow Jackets as a pole-vaulter have made time management a necessity.

“I would have practice at 5:30 a.m. for football, lift at noon, classes in between all that and then track practice at 3 p.m. It was definitely a unique situation, but it’s been a great experience overall,” Kendra said. “I had a really great time doing both sports individually, and then I’ve really had a great time with everything. It’s been tough juggling everything, but it’s been a really great experience so far.”

Perhaps Kendra’s biggest accomplishments athletically at Waynesburg have come in the pole vault, where he holds the school record in both indoor and outdoor track & field. While he continues to break his own records each year, Kendra looks back on the moment that he finally broke 14’6” in the event, a goal he had set for himself back in high school, as the milestone was the record at Trinity High School.

“The time that I hit 14’6” for the first time…I cleared [it] in the last meet of my junior year,” Kendra said. “It was just that goal that I set in high school and I never was able to accomplish it—I was a couple feet off unfortunately. But for me, it was a couple years later than I had hoped, but I was able to finally accomplish that…it was awesome to be able to do that and all the support I’ve had from my teammates has been incredible.”

Head coach Michelle Cross has worked with Kendra on the team as both an assistant and head coach, and commends his immense development over the years.

“Mitch has developed into one of the leaders on our team,” said Cross. “He has always had a tremendous work ethic and attention to detail. He has become more independent and self-motivated as his years at the school have worn on. He is definitely one of those young men you wonder what the team will do without the next year.”

Kendra will graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Arts in communication with a focus in journalism and a public relations minor. As of now, he currently does not have anything lined up job-wise once he graduates, but is hoping he can start with a smaller local newspaper and work his way up from there.

Throughout his years at Waynesburg, Kendra faced a lot of adversity and had to overcome many obstacles, but he is thankful for all the opportunity and hopes those around him can take things away from what he’s done at Waynesburg.

“I just hope I made a difference to my teammates—some of these guys have been really cool to compete with,” Kendra said. “If I wouldn’t have come to Waynesburg I wouldn’t have met these guys.”