Saints quarterback Chase Daniel addressed more than 100 student-athletes and their parents at the St. Philip Neri sports banquet in Metairie, La. on Tuesday.
"I remember when I was younger, I looked up to a lot of NFL players," said Daniel. "The opportunity to come out here and talk to these students is awesome."
This event served as a conclusion to a year of growth in athletics under first year Athletic Director, Lesley Terminie.
Daniel was introduced to the large audience by Vice President of Ticket and Suite Sales for the New Orleans Saints Mike Stanfield. Stanfield discussed the importance of balancing academics and athletics and touched on the former Tiger's academic achievements.
Among other athletic awards, Daniel was named a Draddy Trophy Finalist, Wuerffel Trophy Finalist, the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, and was twice named First-Team Academic All-Big 12 on his way to earning a degree in business finance from Missouri.
"I took my academics very seriously," said Daniel. "My finest accomplishment was taking the term student-athlete by its word. I was a student first."
He discussed that managing academics and athletics is one of the hardest things he has had to do and provided tips to students on how to manage their time.
Daniel stressed the importance of time management, organization and prioritizing.
"The secret to my success is goal-setting" said Daniel. "If you follow your goals and achieve them, you will be successful in whatever you do."
"I love what Chase said," said Craig Bethelot, a parent who attended the event. "I have practiced that for 25 to 30 years. I am trying to instill those values to my kids. He had a great message for the students."
The school is attempting to expand its athletic program while still maintaining a focus on academics. Over the past year, the school has been able to include tennis as a sport while also adding hockey, nutrition lessons, and more to the standard physical education program. In addition, the school has made steps to add a softball program starting next year.
"It was great to have him," said Athletic Director Lesley Terminie. "I loved that he touched on academics and goal-setting. It is important to have a balance of athletic activity and academics. That is something that we try to work on here."
When asked about the importance of the methods he discussed, Daniel replied "It is very important. It is what got me through my younger years. To this day, I use those methods. I will have them with me for the rest of my life."
