Remember Nate Boyer? He was the former United States Army Green Beret who found a spot on the University of Texas’s football team and eventually found his way to the National Football League.

If the former Longhorn’s name doesn’t ring a bell, allow this to be a refresher.

Incredible, huh?

Sadly, Mr. Boyer is an anomaly. He’s a rare bird in a sky filled with civilian fauna, and that’s just the nature of things.

Not so, says a former U.S. Marine sergeant and Under Armour product line manager Alex Stone who’s recently dedicated his career to placing guys like Boyer all over intercollegiate athletics. U.S. military veterans, that is.

With some seed money from a nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts firm, Stone has founded a startup based on solving the aforementioned goal — it’s called Athletes of Valor, and it’s also attempting to help all vets transition back to civilian life as smoothly as possible.

This from BostInno:

The problem Athletes of Valor is seeking to tackle is a big one. According to a 2014 study by Student Veterans of America, a little over 51 percent of veterans who sought a higher education between 2002 and 2013 actually graduated. That’s lower than the 59-percent rate reported for younger, non-veteran students.

For Stone, that means there’s an opportunity to help more veterans enroll in school and complete their education by keeping them engaged by playing on college sports teams.

“Our mission is to help veterans transition from service to career through the power of collegiate sports,” Stone told BostInno. “We’re using sports as structure and a vehicle to help service men and women find success on the collegiate level.”

For Stone, his startup’s mission is personal. After Stone finished four years serving with the U.S. Marines, he came back to his hometown of Swampscott and had difficulty re-adjusting to life as a civilian. Little did he know, he could have taken advantage of a Military Service Exemption for eligibility to join a college sports team for the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

You can check out the company’s unique mission in the video they posted on YouTube back a few months ago …