by Via Avila Athletics:
A reliable teammate who was always willing and able to step in when called upon and a gifted student with his eyes set squarely on his future, Tristan Askan (Navajo) has been named the 2020 Avila Athletics Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
“Tristan is a very introverted, by himself type of person a lot, but he’s also the type of guy that was very reliable, somebody who was definitely a team player, understood his role, wanted to play and did get a good opportunity to play for us and helped us have success throughout his entire career,” head football coach Marc Benavidez said. “If we didn’t have a guy like that, we’d definitely have a lot more losses over the last four years.”
The 2021 Avila graduate from Mesa, Arizona was a key contributor at the quarterback position for all four years in Kansas City, appearing in at least three games every year. He earned the opportunity to start as a true freshman in October 2017, shaking off some understandable nerves to throw for 319 yards and two touchdowns against Missouri Valley. He followed that up with 275 yards and four scores two weeks later in an Avila victory over MidAmerica Nazarene, the first win of his career as a starter.
Fast forward three years later. Benavidez needed a quarterback for his team’s 2020 season opener against preseason KCAC favorites Bethel, and Askan, as usual, was ready, stepping in and keeping the Eagles in striking distance the whole way against their eventual conference co-champions. Askan then was strong in a key role the following game against Friends and shined in a featured reserve role against both Tabor and against Sterling on Senior Day.
“He’s the type of guy that knew what he wanted to get into when he got here,” said Benavidez, who helped bring Askan to Avila from Arizona in the first place. “Wanted to get into security management, loss prevention, stuff like that. Just having conversations with him, he’s the type of guy that understands that he’s at Avila, he’s in college not just for football, but is here to put himself in a successful situation afterwards. No doubt he was focused on football and working his butt off for football, but it wasn’t just ‘Hey, I gotta go focus on watching this film,’ it was ‘I’ve got to make sure I got this homework done, I’ve got to get this figured out, I’m putting in the extra time to make sure whatever is needed to get done so I can be successful is going to get done.’ And he did that on the field and off the field.”
Off the field, Askan, a Criminology and Justice Studies major, worked just as hard, producing a GPA north of 3.0 and lining up a legit job right out of college.
“It was great watching him just develop and grow and become a man, and maintain a damn near full-time job like a lot of our guys on the team do, and be able to work on football, and work on his academics. I mean, just an awesome kid, one of my favorite guys on the team the last few years,” Benavidez said.
Candidates for the 2020 Avila Athletics awards were nominated and voted upon by the department’s head coaches, strength team, athletic trainers and communication staff. Every member of the department had the chance to nominate and then vote for all 13 of the second annual slate of honors showcasing the best Avila Athletics had to offer in the memorable 2020-21 season.
