Football | 10/19/2015 1:13:00 PM

This feature appeared in AUDIBLE, which is the official gameday program of Warrior Football, on Oct. 17, 2015.
Wayne State coaches travel far and wide across the Midwest to recruit future student-athletes. 

Anthony Holt, chief of Wayne State's police department, does not often have to go so far.

Holt, chief since 2008, has created a career pipeline of sorts for Wayne State student-athletes interested in careers in law enforcement that starts when they are still in school and can progress into officer positions once they graduate. 

The current Wayne State police force consists of former Warriors including women's basketball player Phaebre Colbert and football players Andy Grimm, Pat Cecile, Nores Fradi and Ed Viverette, to name a few. Several more are working as cadets until they finish their undergraduate degrees. And scores of other former WSU student-athletes have started their law enforcement careers at 6050 Cass Avenue before moving on to other forces. 

"The reason I like picking athletes from the program is they're very disciplined, very focused and usually know what direction they want to go in," Holt said. "And they come in and have a college degree, we give them lots of training, we assign them to different task forces, and usually they get noticed and then go on to other police departments."

Holt is huge supporter of the athletic program and can be seen at many games and in the locker room. That gives him a front-row seat to witness potential officer candidates in an informal setting. Many players seek out the chief if they are interested in joining the force, and Holt relies on coaches, professors and athletic staff to serve as references when considering current and former student-athletes for open positions. 

For the former student-athletes-turned-officers, working at the police department provides them with an opportunity to gain a wide-range of skills in a career that is comparable to their sports-playing days.

"You're a team out there," said Pat Cecile, who played defensive end on the football team from 2008 through 2012 and who is now a WSU PD officer. "It's not like a normal business firm. You don't know what you're dealing with, running around from traffic stop to traffic stop, and it's a lot of the same principles as being on a football team. It's not just you; it's not about just yourself. It's about everyone around you. In a way, it's very similar to football, which I've played my whole life."
 

Cecile joined the police force in 2014, but when he first arrived at Wayne State as a freshman, he had no intention of pursuing a career in law enforcement. But after discovering his first two degree options did not suit him best, he heard some of his teammates – including former WSU offensive lineman Marc Cuddeback, who is now a deputy with the Oakland County Sheriff Department – talking about criminal justice classes. 

"When I first came out of high school, I was a pharmacy major," Cecile said. "Then I switched to Kinesiology/physical therapy, and then in the locker room, talking with guys about their majors and what they were doing … they talked about criminal justice, so I took a couple of criminal justice classes. Then I decided to take it serious and here I am."

So why do so many former student-athletes start their law enforcement careers with the Wayne State police department? There are a couple of reasons: first, current-student athletes can get initial training as police cadets. Secondly, the department will pay for police academy, which typically costs about $5,000, Holt said. Finally, there's the experience. Wayne State officers don't just patrol the campus; they are also commissioned as Detroit Police Department officers.

"It's a university police department, so people think it's more about just patrolling the campus," Cecile said. "But really, we're responding to a wide array of runs, from a car lockout to a possible armed robbery in progress – anywhere in Midtown, not just on campus."

Joining the Wayne State police department is no easy task. 

One of the requirements to become an officer is that a potential candidate must have at least a bachelor's degree, and many in the force have advanced degrees. (An undergraduate degree is not needed to be a police cadet – essentially a trainee police officer – though cadets cannot apply to be an officer without one.)

Wayne State was the second college police force in the country, behind Cornell, Holt said, that required all officers to have an undergraduate degree. The force was founded in 1966 and had six officers – all with college degrees. Holt estimates that today, about 85 to 90 percent of the WSU force has at least a master's degree.

That requirement jives well with the requirements of the Wayne State athletic department, whose graduation rate sits at 72 percent, in line with the Division II average and well above that of the general WSU student population.

Becoming a cadet is generally the first step Wayne State student-athletes take if they think they might be interested in joining the police department after they graduate. 

Will Wheat, a senior wide receiver on the football team, is a current example of a student-athlete exploring that option.

"I knew I wanted to be a criminal justice major, and I started noticing cadets on campus," Wheat recalled. "I started asking around about it and then I introduced myself to Chief Holt."

A few months after applying, Wheat received a call saying he got the job as a cadet, a position he describes as 'the eyes and the ears' for the department's officers.

"The stuff that they won't be able to see, we're on foot and we're walking around campus, so we're able to attend to smaller problems like teacher complaints," Wheat said. 

Wheat has been a cadet for about a year now – working during the football offseason – and is hopeful to be selected for an officer position this coming summer. Wheat also hopes to continue his education at the same time – possibly studying psychology – and eventually wants to work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To work for those agencies, someone like Wheat will need multiple years of experience as an officer, Holt said.  

"It prepares you in a way to continue toward what I want to do," Wheat said of being a cadet. "Clearly I can't be a cop right now, but doing something to work toward that, it helps out a lot." 

Before becoming an officer, Wheat will have to go through police academy, something Thom Box, an offensive lineman on the football team from 2010 through 2014, is on track to complete very soon, Holt said.

"Once (Box) finishes, he'll go through our training program and I'll take him down to Detroit and the chief of police (James Craig) will swear him in as a police officer with full authority working from Wayne State," Holt said. 

From there, officers primarily start by working on the street and responding to calls. As they gain experience, they are able to add more specialized responsibilities to their roles.

Colbert, for example, is in executive protection training, which will allow her to work special events in Detroit. 

"We bring a lot of dignitaries to campus," Holt said. "In the past, we've brought the ex-president of Mexico, we brought several prime ministers from African nations, and usually I assign officers with that specialized training to those details."
 

Andy Grimm, a 1998 criminal justice graduate and WSU football captain, is another officer with specialized training.

Grimm had originally planned on joining the Marine Corps, but after opting not to wait six months for a spot, he put himself through the Oakland Police Academy. When it came time to apply to various police departments, Wayne State was the first to respond.

Grimm worked the streets for three years before a position opened up as a K-9 officer. 

"I love dogs," Grimm said. "I've always loved dogs, always had dogs growing up.

"I love dogs more than I do people."

Grimm is now senior handler at the Wayne State police department, working alongside his German shepherd partner, Drago. 

Drago tracks explosives, and Grimm and Drago have gotten a chance to work together during many unique and high-profile visits. Grimm has met Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama (and worked alongside the Secret Service) and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, to name a few, and has worked playoff games for Detroit's professional sports teams as part of his work with the K-9 unit.

The National Association of Professional Canine Handlers recently recognized Grimm and Drago as its 2014 Utility Team of the Year for several successive searches that resulted in the recovery of weapons used in shootings and felonious assaults and for assisting in apprehending a parole absconder who had barricaded himself in a basement. 

"Another time, we were out by a playground and a guy had an automatic weapon," Grimm said. "He was firing that off, the officers responded, he ran off and they caught him but couldn't find the gun. Drago and I went and Drago found the gun.

"That one was especially cool because where Drago found the gun, it was probably only 20 yards from the playground. That could have turned out really bad if a kid had found that."

Grimm's story is somewhat unique in that he has been with the Wayne State police department for more than a decade – Holt acknowledged very few officers actually start and finish their career with the force – but Grimm said that is because he has found his perfect role.

"I guess the reason I'm still at Wayne is because I'm doing what I want to do, which is K-9," Grimm said.