Click Here to View A Photo Gallery from the 2013 MEAC SAAC Meeting
Representatives from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's (MEAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) met February 9-11, 2013 at the Sheraton Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Virginia in order to provide each other with updates regarding their respective campus SAAC activities and initiatives. The representatives have regular conference calls throughout the academic year; however this annual meeting provides the group an opportunity to meet in person.
The MEAC SAAC committee is a body made up of MEAC student-athletes whose intent is to provide insight on the student-athlete experience and offer input on rules, regulations and policies that affect student-athletes on NCAA member institution campuses. The SAAC also acts as the medium between student-athletes and campus administration.
Representatives opened the meeting by providing each other with updates regarding their campus SAAC initiatives and volunteer efforts, such as food and clothing drives and mentoring at local elementary schools through Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Some SAAC groups also talked about plans to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity during their spring break.
"We definitely get to meet more people and get inside each other's heads and pick each other's brains," said Heather Joshker, a junior softball player from Coppin State University. "It definitely brings us together. I know we've already gotten a lot of ideas to bring back."
"I got a lot of new ideas and we can kind of piggy back off of other schools," added Howard University's Aaron Harrison, a junior who runs track.
Morgan Boyd, a junior softball player from Norfolk State University who acts as the MEAC's NCAA SAAC representative, led a question and answer session dealing with current issues that are affecting collegiate sports, such as practice times, illegal substance abuse and conference realignment.
"This opportunity allows me to get my point across and gives the group an opportunity to ask me questions in person," said Boyd. "I know it's harder to address everything in an email and they weren't as involved in the feedback. Communication and being informed are the biggest things. It's all about keeping everyone informed."
Lonnie Lockett, Jr., a junior football player from Florida A&M University, said that he got a lot out of Boyd's question and answer session.
"We all have the same issues, and coming to a meeting like this, we get to see how we each handle different situations. We get to bounce around different ideas off each other."
Nicole Mitchell, the SAAC Advisor and Athletic Counselor at North Carolina Central University led the group in an activity that stressed the importance of communication and how small details can be lost in translation. Participants left the room and came back one-by-one, having to tell the next person as much of a story as possible. By the end of the exercise, a story that was originally pages long with a lot of detail had been summarized down to only a few sentences.
"With the role that I'm in, it's easy for (student-athletes) to come in and speak to me when they're talking about their academics, but the conversations we're having may roll over into something that's bothering them that's affecting their athletic performance or their academic performance," said Mitchell. "So our SAAC committee does a lot of team-building exercises that requires them to talk to each other. Not only does it require them to talk to each other, but some of the exercises require them to ask questions of somebody in a higher position than them. It starts to open that conversation."
Bethune-Cookman University's Director of Athletics, Lynn Thompson, took the opportunity to remind the group of the role they play as student-athletes and how to make good decisions using the four stages of decision making: getting information, surveying the situation, making an adjustment, and executing the plan. He reminded the representatives to always think about what's next and how to prepare for it, to assess the situation and react.
"I just wanted the student-athletes to know that they are the best that we have," said Thompson. "Their careers have been tracked, they have been validated as the best from their communities, the best from their high schools, the best from their school districts, and now we have them on our campuses. I want them to digest and utilize all of the intangible things that they learned in competition. If they understand all of the intangibles that they have, it will take them to another level when they leave the field of competition."
Reverend Dr. Jerome Barber, pastor of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple in Hampton, Virginia showed the group a clip from the film Men of Honor in which Cuba Gooding Jr. has to assemble a piece of piping while under water after his parts are dumped everywhere. Reverend Barber spoke on the difference between eyesight and insight, using an example of an apple and a seed, asking the group how many apples can be found in each.
"A leader has the ability to see not only what is, but what can be. A leader sees beyond the obvious," said Barber.
"The speakers that we had were great," said Denni Johnson, a freshman volleyball player from North Carolina Central University. "It helped me realize that there's more to every situation that you can see. Nothing is ever black and white."
The last speaker of the day was Jennifer Saxon, the Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Academic Enhancement and the Senior Woman Administrator at South Carolina State University, who spoke to the student-athletes about transitioning from college life to work life, specifically about small intangibles that no one tells young adults as they transition from college into the working world.
"Everything that you do now, whether it's in college or in internships, it directly impacts on your work life. So figuring out who you are as a person and what your values are and how those ideals translate to your everyday life and your decision making. Your decision making directly impacts what will happen tomorrow."
The SAAC met on Monday, February 11 with MEAC Commissioner Dr. Dennis Thomas. Dr. Thomas started off by asking each student-athlete to state their own definition of leadership and why each of them were in attendance at the in-person meeting.
"Leadership is the ability to get people to achieve a common goal," stated Dr. Thomas. "If you can't take criticism, then you fail the first test of being a leader."
The SAAC representatives then closed out the weekend by volunteering at Keep Norfolk Beautiful. The student-athletes helped to get supplies organized for volunteers for their upcoming clean-up initiative.
"I think it's important for our student-athletes to have a voice on each of their institutions," added Commissioner Thomas. "Part of the student-athlete experience is having a voice in what goes on in their athletic programs and specifically with their teams. I would hope that they will take what they have learned from the speakers this weekend back to their campuses. It's important for them to understand that not only are they in a leadership role, but that they are in a servant role as well. They are here to bring to us what's going on at their campuses and take back from the speakers, from the Commissioner, from interaction with each other, and hopefully those interactions and ideas make them better people and student-athletes when they get back to their campuses."