DIGITAL GCU Today AUG issue

GCU Alumni 30 • GCU MAGAZ I NE Imboden, one of those veterans, has experienced numerous medical emergencies during his 25-year firefighting career, which includes 13 years as a captain. “If something is going wrong, a drowning or a code (cardiopulmonary arrest), you have tomanage your emotions and do your job,” said Imboden, who earned a degree in public administration with a minor in psychology in 1991. The Cortez High School graduate followed his dad into firefighting, cementing a lifelong commitment to west Phoenix in general and GCU in particular. After all, his station is less than two miles from campus. Similarly, his fellow Lopes baseball alums- turned-firefighters have maintained a close connection with GCU. Firefighters have been welcomed on campus for years to participate in physical training, including lifting weights, swimming and playing basketball. When Moreland’s future wife, Krista Jacob, was a volleyball player at GCU, the players posed on a fire truck for their team photo. “I feel like the fire department has always been a part of Grand Canyon,” said Moreland. It has come full circle: Occasionally, Stankiewicz suggests fire service for specific players, and Neville and Imboden, who remain involved in baseball through coaching Warriors Baseball Academy, periodically recommend players to Stankiewicz for recruitment. Staying close to home Like the laces of a tightly wound baseball, the ties among the alums, the west Phoenix community and the University are binding. “I knew Grand Canyon was a Christian school, but I was going there to live at home and try to walk on the baseball team,” Troy Holtorf said. “Little did I know that I would go there and end up receiving the Gospel.” The professors at GCU, particularly the late Malcolm “Mack” Sloan and College of Science, Engineering and Technology professor William Kuehl, made a profound spiritual impact on Holtorf, while Neville and Holtorf’s cousin Ryan Holtorf, another baseball player-turned- firefighter, cultivated his interest in fire service. “I prayed a lot about becoming a firefighter,” Holtorf said. “I didn’t know if I could handle the blood and guts, I didn’t know if I could handle the physicality and I still get nervous going to work.” Indeed, those who answer the call to serve the community through firefighting are a special breed. “Working for the fire department is physically, physically, physically demanding, so it helps that we are all in great shape and we all know how to work out and adjust to the heat,” Moreland said. “But, really, it is mentally taxing more than anything else, so going to Grand Canyon and being a student-athlete prepared us for mental pressure. “You really don’t know what you’re going to get on a game day. It’s the same thing for the fire department. You don’t know what you’re going to see. Sometimes we see tragic, sad things. We see sick, injured people and we deal with pretty extreme emergencies.” Communities, particularly west Phoenix and the GCU campus, rely on physically fit and mentally tough men and women to answer their calls for help, and often the firefighters coming to the rescue are former Lopes baseball players. As Stankiewicz concluded, “We are very proud of the alums who are giving back.” Phoenix Fire Department captains Brian Imboden and Austin Moreland have discovered many correlations between being on a baseball team and working in a firehouse.