'It showed me where I could be.' Cincinnati Public Schools athletes get into 'Honest Game'

Harry McCall was doing his job as head football coach of the Aiken Falcons.

No, McCall wasn't running a practice or a film session. He was deep in spreadsheets and numbers, calculating a player's grade point average.

McCall, Aiken athletic director Paul Brownfield and a player, Ja'Quan Bennett, got together to manually go through transcripts and find the GPA numbers needed to confirm Bennett was eligible to play collegiately at Division I Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

"We took that whole day of going, 'Ok, we can use that math. We can use that science. We can use that natural science. We can use that history class. We can't use that elective; that doesn't count.' We single-handedly counted up those letter grades, averaging them out and coming up with a GPA," McCall said.

Now, McCall and all other Cincinnati Public Schools coaches, administrators and athletes will have a partner in keeping academic eligibility clear and easily communicated.

Through the AAA Pathway by Activities Beyond the Classroom, CPS was partnered with education startup Honest Game. Honest Game, founded in 2019, created a program that tracks real-time academic results to provide eligibility status as high school athletes seek admission in NCAA Division I, II and III schools as well as NAIA programs. 

Honest Game creates a CARE Plan, which can also show projections of how GPAs can be affected by achieving certain grades for the semester, making for easier goal planning.

The partnership has already made life easier for coaches like McCall.

"I think it's huge," McCall said of plans. "It gives (athletes) a little bit more hope and a little bit more understanding of how this process works. A lot of kids didn't understand what it takes academically to get to some of these goals they had in mind and it breaks them down so tremendously."

Cincinnati Public Schools adopted the AAA Program from ABC in 2018 that gave athletes mentoring for next-level advancement. With the existing AAA Pathway, Honest Game's implementation was smoother and with an immediate impact.

“Nearly one million student-athletes are deemed academically ineligible every year," Honest Game CEO Kim Michelson said in a release. "Honest Game exists to help decrease that statistic by providing schools like CPS with the resources they need to help ensure these students reach their full potential. CPS is providing life-changing opportunities for student-athletes through its AAA Pathway program, and we are proud that Honest Game is a crucial part of that. Working with dedicated school districts like CPS who go the extra mile to address the needs of its students is one of the many reasons why we created Honest Game, and we could not be more excited to see this partnership flourish.”

Anthony Mason, a senior lineman at Aiken under McCall, is one of those athletes using the plans to set goals and demonstrate his eligibility. In a year of remote learning, Mason faced those academic challenges head-on and used the Honest Game program to grow his GPA.

"It showed me where I could be at," Mason said of viewing his academics on the CARE Plan. "Once I saw that, I got the work done and got what I needed."

Mason was in communication with Division II and NAIA programs and the ability to share his academics grew the interest.

"When I was talking to coaches, they were really big on seeing grades," Mason said. "I sent them transcripts and they really liked my grades so it's helped with that."

With Honest Game's influence, coaches like McCall will have more time to devote to Xs and Os and mentoring young men and women while athletes like Mason have the worry of surprise ineligibilities behind them and can continue to grow GPAs with real-time visuals and results.