Former UCF volleyball standout DeLaina Sarden certainly had a feel for what college athletics were all about.
She also had a feeling that working in the collegiate athletic space might be right up her alley.
It just took her a little while to find her sweet spot on a journey that likely still has more stories to be written.
Sarden earned her bachelor's degree in human communication from UCF with a minor in mass communication. She competed as a four-year starter for the UCF women's volleyball team and led the Knights to their initial American Athletic Conference Championship in 2014 and first bid to the NCAA Championship since 2003.
During her career at UCF, she earned such accolades as AAC player of the year (2014), and she was a three-time honorable mention All-American, first-team all-conference pick (twice in the AAC, once in Conference USA) and AVCA all-region selection. She achieved immediate success at the collegiate level, winning 2011 Conference USA Freshman of the Year honors.
She helped the Knights win 84 combined matches over her career—including a 25-8 record (18-2 in AAC play), that initial AAC title and the NCAA Championship appearance in her senior season in 2014. Away from the court, she was UCF's institutional nominee for the AAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2014.
Sarden then attended Michigan State University as a graduate assistant working with the university's student-athlete support services from 2015-17. In this capacity, Sarden worked alongside Angela Montie in student-athlete development and served as the assistant academic coordinator for the Spartans' rowing program. She graduated with a Master of Science degree in kinesiology with a concentration in student-athlete development.
Among her career mentors were current Oregon State senior associate athletics director Kimya Massey (the former UCF director of academic services who had two degrees from Michigan State and also worked with the Spartans as an academic advisor), Margaret Dann (her academic advisor at UCF), Cori Pinkett (former assistant director of student services at UCF) and Marcus Sedberry (former director of student services at UCF).
After graduating from Michigan State, Sarden landed her dream job at the University of Wisconsin (2017-19) in the office of career and leadership, helping to prepare student-athletes for their personal and professional endeavors post-collegiate career.
"After deciding that I no longer wanted to pursue a career as a sports broadcaster, I realized I wanted to stay in college athletics, but not necessarily coach," she says. "I loved how much of an impact the staff at UCF had on my personal and professional development as a student-athlete and wanted to have that same impact on future student-athletes.
"After I finished my master's degree at Michigan State, there was still the uncertainty of which route I wanted to go within collegiate athletics. I wasn't sure what was next but I remained open to different opportunities and experiences that would soon bring me closer to finding my true purpose.
"Wisconsin was an amazing opportunity because they were nationally recognized for their work in the space of student-athlete development and had an abundance of resources to really develop and build out programming to take the industry to new heights. Having been at another Big Ten institution, I was familiar with the caliber of student-athletes, the level of competition, among other dynamics that helped to shorten the learning curve and acclimate faster to a new environment."
Going into her second year in Madison, Sarden started being recruited for assistant director level positions, which happened faster than she anticipated. She had to really start thinking about her next steps and, even more importantly, her ultimate goal. What exactly was she working to become? Given that she did not have an immense desire to move up within athletic administration, she spent a lot of time contemplating what her next step would be and began exploring opportunities outside of her specific capacity and connecting with different individuals to gain an understanding of what else collegiate athletics had to offer.
Sarden applied for and was accepted to the Learfield Minority Academy with the encouragement of Jenn Hunter (former director of diversity and inclusion at Wisconsin) and Andy Rawlings (former chief revenue officer at Learfield).
"That experience was an eye-opener for me in terms of being exposed to all of the various avenues you could take within intercollegiate athletics," she says. "I had a passion for organizational development from my time at UCF, but due to eligibility requirements, didn't have a lot of flexibility to explore different majors.
"In trying to prepare for life after college, it felt like I was having an early mid-life crisis. I had dreamed of becoming a sports broadcaster since I was in third grade, and the feeling of having to essentially start all over was daunting. However, the tremendous staff at UCF really helped me navigate my newfound career path and find classes, such as team dynamics and conflict management, that introduced me to foundational concepts that I could continue to build upon while in grad school and explore further as I worked to carve out this new career path."
The LMA program provided a sense of what it would be like to work in a variety of capacities at Learfield and also provided a shadow opportunity at one of its sports properties to see their work "live and in color" (she spent two days at the Alabama athletics department). This was also the first time Sarden was introduced to the world of executive search.
"At that time, I was not very familiar with search firms and the role they played in the recruitment of different leadership positions throughout the college space--in higher education or collegiate athletics," she says.
In her efforts to continuously explore different avenues within collegiate athletics, she connected with a representative from Atlanta-based firm Parker Executive Search (Sarden's hometown was Atlanta suburb Lawrenceville, Georgia) and discussed an opportunity to come down and shadow while home on winter break. Just before Christmas she was alerted to a job opportunity at Parker—and it seemed to make perfect sense.
"Everyone spoke so highly of Parker's reputation within the industry, and it was an added bonus to have the chance to come back home," Sarden says. "Yet more importantly, I love career development. I saw this as a great opportunity to combine many of my interests and stay in an industry that I was very passionate about, without being at a specific campus. I also loved the fact that Parker has a higher education practice as well. In what I could foresee in the landscape of collegiate athletics, I knew how important it would be to learn the higher education side of things to really complete the full picture.
"Parker had also done a lot of work at UCF in terms of the athletic director searches that produced Todd Stansbury and Danny White and the football coaching searches for Scott Frost and Josh Heupel. Seeing how each of those individuals was able to positively impact and elevate UCF as a whole was really special for me as an alumna. Knowing that I could play a part in enhancing the experience for hundreds of people on other campuses really inspired me and gave me the confidence I needed to pivot career paths and pursue the world of executive search."
Sarden (now DeLaina Jordan after marrying A.J. Jordan, a former Wisconsin football player) is now an associate, working in the sports and higher education practices, for Parker. Her main responsibilities are to conduct comprehensive research on clients and target institutions, develop and execute a detailed search strategy--and assist in the recruitment of qualified candidates based on the needs of the client and institution.
She briefly turned to healthcare recruiting (in particular therapy services for special education) during the pandemic while the college search industry temporarily shut down with most schools enacting hiring freezes.
"When the pandemic happened, I was very nervous about what I would do in the interim, but I knew I couldn't give up. I couldn't let this be the end of my story. The phrase at UCF when I was a student-athlete was 'under construction forever,'" Sarden says. "I interpreted that to mean, 'You are always growing in some way,' and that is what kept me going during the pandemic. I knew business would be back. Why not find an opportunity that would really get me out of my comfort zone and also re-affirm for me that I had found the right industry and path?
"It was a great learning experience, and I was able to prove to myself that I could be an effective search consultant no matter what the position or industry. When the opportunity to rejoin Parker was presented to me, it was a no-brainer. Except this time, I wasn't a scared 24-year old trying to escape the cold of the Midwest, I had a newfound confidence and inspiration about the work that we do and, more importantly, a vision for the kind of search consultant I wanted to become and the impact I could have on this industry.
"You can be anything you want in this industry—you just have to figure out the right path for you," Sarden says. "I love interacting with different people and seeing the affinity all these people have for their schools and appreciating why that is."
She still enjoys playing and coaching volleyball. She and A.J. live in Dacula, Georgia—and they have a road trip planned this summer to Florida. It's the first chance for her husband to see UCF and really get a feel for the passion she has for her alma mater.
"We had great comradery at UCF between athletes in different sports," Sarden says. "We had a lot of school spirit within the athletic community, and we supported each other at each other's games and even at workouts.
"I remember running 'gassers' on the soccer field once, and a football player, Justin Tukes, was watching and said, 'Hey, D, you've got to open up your stride or you're going to kill yourself every time.' And the next day I was able to crush the 300 shuttle.
"The staff we had at UCF was dynamite—I've worked at other athletic departments and seen athletic departments across all divisions and, unfortunately, I don't always see the same commitment to the student-athlete experience that I saw at UCF. That is what inspires me and gets me out of bed every day in finding the right mix of candidates that have the potential to positively impact that institution in more ways than one. I have met and know so many great coaches and athletic administrators who, if given the right opportunity, could really change the trajectory of an institution for the better.
"What we do is not rocket science, but it is an art and there is a method to the madness. If you are genuine in your relationship-building and actively listen to those around you, you can always find a way to positively impact others. That's what I strive to do every day in my line of work--engage, empower, elevate.
"'Built by UCF' is a huge piece of my identity.
"UCF has been a great springboard for me and it has opened a lot of doors."
This is part of a recurring series of feature pieces on former UCF student-athletes.