By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
         Watching fifth-year senior captains Terrel Bernard, Jalen Pitre and Xavier Newman-Johnson walk out with quarterback Gerry Bohanon for the coin toss before the New Year's Day Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Emily DeRatt couldn't stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks. 

         "That group of seniors, I like to say that we came in as freshmen together," said DeRatt, Baylor's Director of Academic Services, who first arrived in Waco in July 2017.

            "To see them go 1-11 . . . to see them go through COVID and go 2-7, and then to just have the season we had was amazing. Senior Day wasn't as emotional for me, because I knew we had more games to play. But, when the captains walked out for the Sugar Bowl, I just started crying, knowing that this was the last time."

         Bernard, Pitre and Newman-Johnson were part of Matt Rhule's first signing class in February 2017, just a few months before DeRatt left Temple University to take the position in Baylor's Student-Athlete Center for Excellence. 

         "I used to hate when people would say everything happens for a reason," she said. "Even small things like when I was an intern at NC State, and they had a job opening. I was devastated when I didn't get it. But, had I gotten that job, I would have never gone to Temple or gotten that phone call to come to Baylor. I would probably still be at NC State, which that position wasn't even working with football. Everything does happen for a reason."

         A native of Cary, N. C., which is a short 30-minute drive to Chapel Hill, Emily grew up a "diehard Carolina fan," as in North Carolina Tar Heels. Her dad, Monty, was a pitcher on the 1978 North Carolina baseball team that made it to the College World Series with a field that included Baylor; and her mom, Connie, was a pitcher on the UNC softball team.

         Alan DeRatt, Emily's older brother (by 22 months), pitched at UNC-Asheville and made it to the Double-A level with the Colorado Rockies' organization. 

         "I was the only one that didn't play a sport in college, but played sports all the way through school," she said. "I played volleyball, basketball and softball, and we were all pitchers. Sports and pitching definitely run in the family, for sure."

         With a plan to transfer back to UNC Chapel Hill after a year, Emily went to UNC Wilmington as a freshman in 2005 and "fell in love with it."

         "I loved the size of it, felt like a real community there in Wilmington, and got really involved on campus," she said. "I played club volleyball for 3 ½ years and just fell in love with that group of people, too. I was president of the volleyball club, worked at the rec center and got involved in club sports pretty heavily from a working capacity as well."

         Graduating with a degree in history in 2008, Emily tried the corporate world, working at Wachovia and then Wells Fargo as a mortgage loan consultant. 

         "The funny part is I was helping people refinance their homes, and I'm 22 years old and renting," she said. "I did that for a year and a half and decided that that was not really something I wanted to continue doing. I was in a cubicle, on the phone all day. It just wasn't something I enjoyed."

         Applying at various graduate schools, Emily ended up in the sport management master's program at the University of Tennessee. 

         "Initially, I really thought I wanted to do professional sports," she said. "But, I think being at Tennessee, at such a big athletics department – versus my undergrad didn't have football – I think the transition made me see college would be really fun. I did a little bit of everything while I was there, working in campus rec and the compliance office. And then, I worked for the Carolina Mudcats baseball team in the summers in between."

         It was in Knoxville that her love for music was rediscovered, because there was live music everywhere. 

         "And even then, I don't think I realized how much I loved it until I moved back (to North Carolina) and there was no live music anywhere," said Emily, whose music interests range from worship to country to "old-school hip-hop."  

         While working part-time at the Pure Barre fitness center, Emily saw a job posting at North Carolina State for a study hall monitor, one of the many jobs she did in her two years at Tennessee. 

         "Even though I didn't know exactly what it was as far as a career, it was something I enjoyed doing and I thought it would be a good way to get my foot in the door, meet people and see if that's something I really wanted to do," she said.           After just a couple of months, a position opened up as assistant tutor coordinator, and a career in academic support was born. Taking an internship position as academic coordinator, Emily worked with men's basketball, gymnastics, wrestling and swimming & diving student-athletes. 

         "That's where I fell in love with working with students, working in college athletics and all of those pieces," she said. 

         Wanting to get involved with football, Emily was hired at Temple University in August 2014, working with a football coaching staff that included Rhule, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, defensive coordinator Phil Snow and familiar names like Francis Brown, Frisman Jackson, Mike Siravo, Elijah Robinson, Glenn Thomas, Jeremy Scott and Evan Cooper. 

         Given additional responsibilities as she worked her way up, Emily served as the academic advisor for football and women's gymnastics at Temple for three years. "It's always a good balance to have men's and women's sports to work with and just learn different things," she said. 

         Roughly six months after Rhule became the head coach at Baylor and took most of his staff with him, Emily got a call from Marcus Sedberry, Baylor's Senior Associate AD for Student-Athlete Success. 

         "I never thought I'd live in Texas, but I also never thought I'd live in Philly," she said. "But, Philly was fantastic. I fell in love with Philly. I never expected to fall in love with it the way that I did."
         Other than Cary, North Carolina, though, Emily has never been anywhere as long as Waco, Texas, where she's into her fifth full year on staff and just finished her second year as Director of Academics. 

         "Emily has been an anchor and backbone of SACE (Student-Athlete Center for Excellence) over the past five years," said Sedberry, who left last month to become a Deputy AD at the University of Wisconsin. 

        "She bought into the philosophy of Preparing Champions for Life immediately and has worked diligently with students and coaches to support the pursuit of academic personal best. Her commitment to excellence helped us propel to unprecedented academic success."

        Because of that, Emily takes as much if not more pride in the football team achieving its highest-ever GPA last semester and Bernard and Pitre earning their master's degrees as the Big 12 championship and Sugar Bowl win over Ole Miss. 

        "We had over a 3.0, which that just doesn't happen in college football," she said. "That goes to Coach (Dave) Aranda's philosophy of person over player, better people make better players. Last season was a perfect example of that."

        Initially hired as an associate director of academics, Emily worked with the defensive players and also served as the academic advisor for softball. She was promoted to the director role in January 2020. 

        On top of taking on a new role – during a COVID pandemic – Emily also went through a transition from Rhule to Aranda as the head football coach with a whole new staff. 

        "Transition-wise, their personalities are so different, but their expectations are the same: to be elite and push students to be the best humans they can be," Emily said of Rhule and Aranda. "I was telling our team: whoever's on that side of the building (with football), our expectations are going to stay the same and how we operate is going to stay the same. 

        "We're always going to be here for our students. We're always going to push them to do their best so that we can make them into the best people they can be. And, obviously, buy-in and support from coaches will always be there, especially because we are Baylor."

         After going through COVID and transitions within the department, the football academics area is now fully staffed with Emily as the director, Cecilie Taylor as associate director and Khalek Shepherd as the academic coach. 

         "I feel like this is really my first year – I know COVID is still around – but leading football in more of a non-COVID world," Emily said. "Because last spring, we were still trying to do a virtual study hall, tutoring was still virtual at the time. So, this year is my first fully over football – non-COVID world, fully-staffed."

         Emily has also taken on the additional role of a secondary sport administrator with track & field and cross country, keeping her on a projected path to eventually move from academics to more of an administrative role. 

         "I think the track piece really helps with that," she said. "And then, just the overall leadership of football and being on our leadership team with SACE really helps with that as well. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but definitely crossing over into administration. I think it would be hard for me to not be involved with football in some capacity, so maybe a sport administrator for football, to still be a part of that. I think that's the plan, I just don't know what that looks like exactly."

         While a lot of her mentors and close friends have left over the last couple of years, including Sedberry, Chris Johnson, Deedee Brown-Campbell, Quinton Smith and Aaron Tebo, Emily has a tight-knit group of friends that includes Lauren Kirby, Director of Learning Support; and Mabrie Hermann, Assistant AD for Compliance. 

         "People say Baylor is special and different, and you have to really be here to feel it," she said. "The people here are just so genuine. And I think the faith component plays a huge piece of that. No matter where we come from, or how different we all are, faith is really important to us and can bring us together. I think that's the foundation for a lot of the relationships that we have here and for the people that we bring in here. It's just a special place."