Wichita State senior Logan Harpool considered himself an athlete when he came to college, not a scholar. But a change of mindset let him apply his competitive nature to academic pursuits, resulting in a higher GPA and a Bill and Dorothy Cohen Endowed Scholarship.

Now he’s published a book about his experiences called “Compete! Maximizing Your Potential for Success.”

“(In the past,) I never thought that I would be able to do better, so I settled,” says Harpool, a physical education major. “Then I told myself that was not enough and I stepped it up and realized that I could do more.”

Harpool, who competes in the extreme sport of obstacle racing, said the real reason for his change of perspective came from his mom. She asked him why he would push himself and train for hours to prepare for competitions, but wouldn’t apply the same work ethic to the classroom.

“At first I said, ‘Mom, that’s completely different,’ and she told me it wasn’t. I just had a bad attitude toward school,” he says.

He decided to make changes and started viewing school as a competition in which an A was winning and a B was losing.

“I don’t think I got all As, but it was night-and-day different from what I was doing,” says Harpool.

Harpool says he hopes others can be inspired by his methods.

“I want to see people do more and push themselves and be motivated,” says Harpool. “Whether they succeed or not, I want to see people motivated to not have a quitter attitude.”

Harpool coaches middle school basketball and high school baseball in Newton and says his students get tired of hearing the “compete speech,” but it is vital to success.

“The competitive attitude sparks everything – work ethic, mentality, perspective. It changes everything in terms of sports and the classroom,” he says.