also oversaw the activities of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SACC) who played a major role
in organizing the event.
Over 100 student-athletes participate in the first-ever athletic festival on Sunday, May 25. A 2k “Fun Run” kicked off the day with a well deserved picnic. In between, the students rotated to stations that included, volleyball, soccer, flag football and softball. The events coordinator, Ramsey Baker, (Union Class of 1993, and the Colleges Assistant Director of Athletics, was pleased with both the turnout and the positive feedback he got from those who did participate.
“For a first time event I was very pleased with the number of student-athletes that came out to participate,” said Baker, “especially considering that it was Spring Fest weekend and a number of our student-athletes had prior commitments to other organizations that that are a part of.”
“The idea for a student-athlete festival came out of discussions during senior staff meetings in the fall,” Baker continued. ” Val has wanted to do something at the end of the year for students to bring them together since he got to Union and this was the year to get the program started. I have been a part of several student-athlete festivals run by the Institute for International Sport and I borrowed some of the ideas from those events to create our program. Working with SAAC we pulled together the concept for the festival this year. I consider it a work in progress that we can adapt each year as the momentum for the event grows. I think that the student-athletes who took part in this year's festival will be our best advocates and promoters of the event in the future.”
As with any successful event, a lot of time and effort is needed from talented people.
the day went and already has some ideas for next year.
“The event came together and worked because of the efforts of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) members that served as captains,” Baker explained. “The group showed good leadership skills and they adapted with the changing schedule and the uneven teams to make things work and make the event fun. We also had a number of coaches and staff members volunteer to help run the day, cook at the barbeque and participate as a team. It was great to see the coaches and staff come together as a team. A special thank you to Sandy Collins for working so hard on getting t-shirts for the event, and for Larry Cottrell for designing the fun run t-shirt.”
Baker has already developed some ideas for next year's festival.
“As the programs grows I would like to add some non-athletic events to allow our student-athletes to showcase some of their many of their non-sport related talents,” he said. “We will be able to do this as the momentum of the event builds and the festival becomes an end of year tradition.
“Although it is important for the student-athletes to integrate into the general campus population, we also feel it is important that they get to know each other and develop friendships between sport teams” Baker continued. “For that reason, we will keep the festival for student-athletes only, with the exception of the fun run which we hope to grow to involve faculty staff and other non-athletes students in the future”.
(2) The Best of the Rest?
Student-Athlete 2002-03 Advisory Committee
(membership included)
- Larry Kaplan/Frank Arcuri – baseball
- Phil Henry/Imbrie Packard – basketball
- Kelly Baker/Taryn Scinto – basketball
- David Van Houte/Jon Menz – crew
- Cassie Evans/Shanna Theriault – crew
- Matt Weber/Ben Waite – cross country
- Becky Seaman/Lisa Capomaccio – cross country
- Terra Lederhouse/Lauren Updegrove – field hockey
- AJ Bodden/Dan Mehleisen – football
- Kris Goodjohn/Brent Booth – ice hockey
- Jamie Laubisch/Courtney Riepenhoff – ice hockey
- Lee Starker/Matt Murphy – lacrosse
- Liz Flanagan/Christie Lynch – lacrosse
- Katie Ryan – soccer
- Erin Lefkowitz – softball
- Ridgely Harrison – swimming
- Catherine Cahill – swimming
- Oliver Collins/Andrew Shohet – tennis
- Megann Denefrio/Lauren Stellato – tennis
- Justin Sievert – track
- Katie Round – track
- Corinn Jordan/Julie Moran – volleyball