TEMPE – Sun Devil pride runs deep here at Arizona State. It is the upbringing and now workplace to many who have found their way back to the Maroon and Gold.
Every Labor Day, Sun Devil Athletics takes a moment to commemorate employed alumni stories. This year, six past graduates review their full-circle journeys and how they fulfill their passions while giving back to programs that have changed their lives as students.
This year’s featured alumni are Jason Mohns, Stephanie Norman, Marcus Williams, Amanda Doyle, Connor Smith and Whittany Horton.
Family legacy: Jason Mohns
Mohns, Sun Devil Football’s assistant tight ends coach, never envisioned himself in this role. Initially focused on a degree in biology, he discovered his passion for athletics while working with student-athletes during his kinesiology studies. His internship proved pivotal, as he recalls “falling in love” with coaching when he counted down the minutes until he could leave work to coach a freshman football team. His job coaching youth sports is how he discovered his coaching ability.
After years of coaching high school football around the Valley, he has found himself at ASU and following the footsteps of his father, Greg Mohns, who also coached here. With his parents meeting here, coming to ASU is seen as a family tradition, that’s why he loves being here. He grew up being surrounded by Sun Devils and attended sporting events when he was a child. Now, he looks forward to wearing the pitchfork everyday.
ASU has given him the opportunity to come back almost three full years ago and make his own name for himself. Being a Sun Devil is everything to Mohns, not only by blood, but because of his closest companions who all met here. He can’t imagine another place to call home for him and his family than being in Arizona.
One of his favorite alumni traditions actually focuses around his family, the Devil Walk. Before every home game he and his kids walk the field alongside other staff and the team.
“As a father who wants to take advantage of every family moment we can have, I look forward to having that moment with them on those Saturdays,” Mohns said.
Jason Mohns with his family.
At Sun Devil Athletics, he is fully invested in the growth of this football team and loves being part of the exciting run they’re on. Mohns sees his success with the program and mentoring student assistants as his way of giving back to the community that raised him. A way from his efforts to be remembered.
“You’re here in the now and you can get so consumed with everything you’re doing,” Mohns said. “But looking back at the people over the years who have had a similar path and have poured into this as much as I have. You want to make sure those contributions don’t ever get forgotten.”
Buttoning up of the career: Stephanie Norman
Norman is the associate head coach for Sun Devil Women’s Basketball as well as the director of basketball strategy. She graduated from ASU in 1989 and used to play women’s basketball. She is making her return to the program for the first time this season as a recent hire.
Norman has a rich basketball background coaching college ball at other schools, but Arizona State has never left her radar. Once she got the opportunity from new head coach Molly Miller, she took it without hesitation. She saw the same vision for this team and felt persuaded by the connections and memories she has here.
Ironically, her favorite ASU memories aren’t games but the simple exchanges she’s had with her former teammates. She remembers making an impact in their lives in the slightest of ways and wants the chance to do that again to help these young ladies grow.
“A teaching lesson is when you never know when you’re going to impact or create a memory for somebody,” Norman said. “Be impactful and do good in other people’s lives because what you thought was nothing big can mean the opposite for someone else. My legacy is shown in others’ memories and actions.”
Stephanie Norman cheering with student-athletes during practice.
She found her coaching passions interning and coaching with the University of Hawai’i and fell in love with it. She wanted a career in biology and never saw coaching in her future. It is her life motto “to have flexibility and being open to new things” that led her from her first coaching position at the University of Oregon and eventually back to ASU.
Not stepping foot on campus for 35 years was surreal to her. With this new coaching position, she is willing to not only share her stories and traditions to the current players, but she also wants them to teach her everything new here. Her favorite tradition she can’t wait to be involved in again is Camp Tontozona. She remembers learning the old fight song and wants to teach that version to the team so they have a way to connect with her history.
Norman’s return to her alma mater is bigger than just a career decision, this is the last chapter of her career. She’s ready to focus on investing everything she has into this team and doing so with intention and purpose to set this program up for greater things.
“I want people to say it is a ‘job well done,’ and respect what I do and know. I put everything into this,” said Norman. “Say, ‘She loved what she did and was purposeful.’ It’s hard to be relentless, I want to be remembered as that.”
Living the dream: Marcus Williams
Williams is a senior associate athletic director at ASU. He is a football alumnus who played from 1993-1998.
After years of professional training in the NFL, he earned his master’s in special education and educational leadership and decided to start coaching high school basketball and football.
After serving as an athletic administrator across various committees, he has found himself back to where it all started.
He has a true passion and fondness working here at ASU. He doesn’t consider this place to feel like work for him or those alongside him. He feels this place is more so a community where you see people truly love what they do everyday.
His most replayed memories all center around being on the team and how happy he was at fall camp, where he would form a strong brotherhood with his teammates. Nowadays, he looks forward to walking through the Tillman Tunnel and attending the annual golf tournaments where he can connect with his fellow football alumni and reassure them that they always feel welcomed back.
Marcus Williams and his wife Jamie posing at the 2025 football home opener.
Because of his athletic history, he understands what’s needed to create a healthy culture for young athletes. He sees himself as a resource for students here and will continue to pour what he can into these young minds to lead them to the future they want.
“I’m a Sun Devil, and I have an opportunity to serve the staff and students here like how I was,” Williams said. “I am living my dream to be employed here at ASU. I’ve always been about serving student-athletes and being part of something bigger than myself.”
Pitchfork pride: Amanda Doyle
Doyle is an assistant athletic trainer for Sun Devil Hockey. She earned her master’s degrees from ASU, studying sports nutrition after previously earning her undergrad in sports medicine at a previous university. She returned to ASU for its rich alumni history and loves how the people who work here truly enjoy what they do and has a great vision for the future of this college, especially with their sports.
She grew up an athlete and dealt with her fair share of injuries but always felt well supported by her injury staff and had a passion for the human body. After having that support she wanted to be that person for another athlete.
Doyle was so well-versed in her program during her grad years, she was the first to graduate in her sports nutrition program. During her last year, she interned for SDA with the women’s triathlon team, followed by going fulltime with the water polo team and worked up to hockey. She’s blessed to say, “She works her dream job at 25.”
Since being employed here at ASU, she’s seen first hand the amount of passion that runs through the school from the fans to the staff. She believes that part of being a Sun Devil means taking pride in all the advancements the school has made both academically and athletically.
Amanda Doyle speaking to a student-athlete.
Some of her favorite alumni memories connect to both. When she was a student, she was incredibly proud of her grad school thesis after all the hard work put into it and traveling with the women’s triathlon team when they earned a national championship.
Doyle is early in her career and so far has enjoyed every moment of it. She’s created many lifelong friends here and learned from her college mentors. That’s why she feels that having well-connected alumni here is so important, everyone is willing to develop together.
“I want other students and athletes to see and grow within the same environment and experience I did, and I want to be part of it.”
It’s an identity: Connor Smith
Smith is a communications program coordinator in the media relations office and is a fourth-generation Sun Devil. Since he was young, he knew ASU is where he was meant to be. He went from attending games with his parents to starting a media relations internship when he was 16 with SDA, and now he is a full-time employee.
Being a Sun Devil has always felt like an identity to him. When he grew up, he was always associated as the “guy who loved ASU and knew he would always be there.” He’s had the drive to be here forever and it was the only college he applied to.
He loves the culture of the department in which he works in and all the staff in the athletic department. He’s grown tremendously since his internship days under the guidance of people like Doug Tammaro, the senior associate AD over media relations. He finds joy teaching and working with the media relations interns in the office today. It’s a constant reminder of how far he has come, and he believes the office is in “good hands” in the coming years.
“It’s a family feeling where everyone shares the same values, sense of inclusion, and has amazing diversity,” Smith said.
He’s always been passionate about Sun Devil Athletics and wants to be able to share the stories to gain attention to the 26 teams here and contribute to their growth. To be in the position in which he sees the behind the scenes improvements and how it all runs is special to him.
After years in the department, Smith has a list of his favorite memories and has kept every credential he’s ever collected from them. This includes golf tournaments and championships, Pat Tillman runs, pregame football traditions, and football camps. There are also the annual gatherings he enjoys with staff and students that happen every year where everyone catches up and meets new people.
Though the two he will remember for the rest of his life is the recent journey to the Big 12 Championship with football and his first road trip with women’s lacrosse where he was stuck for 16 hours on a bus with a new team and coaches. He looks back at those being pivotal moments in his career where he learned how to bond, enjoy success and gain confidence.
Connor Smith at the 2024 Big 12 Football Championship
Rooted in a rich family history at ASU, Smith is passionate about sharing and honoring Sun Devil legacies.
“That is what creates passion, dedication, and the willingness to go above and beyond with ASU sports,” Smith said. “It makes it mean more than the school and the sport itself. To build off the legacies that came before us and take pride in that to become better, create cultures, stories, and bond with one another. To care about a place makes a difference and pays homage to those who came before us.”
Bleed Maroon and Gold: Whittany Horton
Horton is a senior events coordinator who originally had a passion for science and wanted to go premed. She never had an interest in sports. It was when she saw her friends work as event attendants at Arizona State that she found the sports atmosphere to be intriguing.
She fell in love with being around athletics and started an operations internship at SDA that lasted for two years. After working in Tempe for a little bit after graduation, she found her way back to ASU and took a full-time job in 2016 as an assistant to where she is now. Because of her sudden change of passion, she always reminds students to “not focus on timelines, it’s always okay to change your mind.”
Whittany Horton in her ASU graduation robes.
This job is important to Horton because it’s her way of giving back by helping student-athletes and other departments from behind the scenes. She wants to help build an environment that feels like family.
She remembers her favorite times here being how it felt to be part of the student section and now she has the chance to still love it but differently.
Horton has grown through this position by learning how to adapt, think quicker, be comfortable with the uncomfortable, and accept that not everything is perfectly planned. Part of the job and in life is working with what you got.
She bleeds Maroon and Gold and everything the pitchfork stands for as a Sun Devil. She is proud to work in a community that includes everyone and feels easily connected with other alumni here.
“You watch the campus grow and change, but you will always have the memory of what was there and how things have progressed.”
