Sean Banks will be graduating on May 10 with experience in media production, credits on a documentary, involvement with advocacy and an award to his name — all things he credits to his football career.
“[Football] gave me a really good work ethic because there’s no other way to put yourself in that spot mentally consistently until you’re in a sport and you have to,” said Banks, a communication major who was a running back on the Dayton Flyers football team. “The extra work doesn’t feel like extra work, because that’s what we normally do; that’s how we handle every practice or workout session.”
Banks found a sense of community on UD's football team. He said he was a prized player in high school until an ankle injury upended his career expectations and left his doctors unsure if he would run again.
But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Though he had lost offers from other Division I schools, the University of Dayton — the first to send Banks an offer — stood by his side.
“I was blessed to even be able to come here,” Banks said. “Coach Ewald was the only one who stuck with me through the entire process. So when I got here and made the team, that meant the world to me. It wasn’t even about making it to the league anymore, it gave me another chance to play football.”
Banks helped reform the culture of the team to be more welcoming of diverse identities and experiences. His ambitions didn’t stop there, either, reaching out to Krystal Warren, senior associate athletics director, to volunteer with UD’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and eventually join as the social media chair.
His SAAC membership helped him bridge his discipline with his passion and skills. Banks interviewed diverse voices, including those of Black student-athletes and for celebrations like Women’s History Month. He also promoted important campus events and resources, like the new Health and Wellbeing Center, separate from his SAAC role.
Banks’ involvement with UD Athletics took him to the 2024 NCAA Inclusion Forum in Indianapolis. In 2024 and 2025, he attended the Black Student-Athlete Summit in Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively.
“It was an amazing experience,” Banks said of the summit. “[I] met a bunch of people in high places that looked like me, which was unique to me.”
At the 2024 summit, he and two of his SAAC peers, track and field runner Jayla Pruitt ’25 and women’s basketball player Saija Cleveland, presented on relationships student-athletes navigate and their challenges.
To his surprise, he was honored at the summit’s main event with the 2024 student of the year award. He said the award recognizes well-rounded students who make an impact on their community.
“I just want to emphasize that Krystal Warren put me in a position to get that,” Banks said. “If she never gave me the [SAAC] position or the opportunity to share those stories, I would have never been able to win or even be where I am today.
“Being an athlete, I already have certain access, but with her permission and the people she knows, I’m able to use those to help other people shine.”
At the Black Student Athlete Summit, he also met a Flyer — Dennis Williams, who attended the University from 2011-2014 and played basketball during the 2011-2012 season. Williams introduced Banks to Tony Hellberg, another media production professional whose career includes more than a decade of work with Nike.
Banks communicates with Hellberg on a regular basis. Most recently, Hellberg has been connecting Banks to opportunities in Chicago as an introduction to advertising and the media production industry.
“I try to gain as much as I can [from our conversations]. I’m grateful he allows me to, too, because I pick his brain all the time, especially with new projects, not just media production,” Banks said. “One of the reasons he worked at Nike was to tell athletes’ stories more. The story, the parts that people don’t really get to tell, is what I want to focus on, too.”
Banks has been using his cinematography, editing and video effects skills to capture those stories. He and his media production capstone classmates presented their documentary about social media from the perspective of Generation Z on May 2 at the Roger Glass Center for the Arts.
All of what he has accomplished, Banks points back to a foundation built through football.
“One of the biggest things I believe football teaches is that you can really do anything you want, you just have to put your mind to it and have the work ethic,” he said. “It resonates in everything.”
