Building Leadership and Team Spirit

Building Leadership and Team Spirit
OWAC initiates ‘Red Alert’ games

It could be someone sitting beside you in chemistry, or the person buying lunch behind you in the campus center, or your roommate and best friend—wherever you look, Ohio Wesleyan is full of student-athletes, and they are making their marks on OWU. Over the past couple of years, the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Council (OWAC) has become an increasingly present group on campus, working to promote student-athletes and helping to improve their relationship with the OWU and Delaware communities.

OWAC is Ohio Wesleyan’s name for the NCAA sponsored Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). According to Julie Duffy, OWAC Advisor, all NCAA sponsored schools are required to have a SAAC on their campus. Representatives of each OWU sport are included on OWAC, and students have the opportunity to participate both on OWU’s campus and beyond at the conference level.

This year, OWAC is focusing on gaining support and public presence within the campus and Delaware communities. To do so, they have initiated “Red Alert” games to encourage more fan support at games.

“Every team picks one game in the season that is a ‘Red Alert’ game,” explains Duffy. “All athletes that aren’t in practice or competing themselves go to these games to give their fellow student-athletes the support they need.” A Facebook page titled 22 Sports, 1 Team, Team OWU has been created to give students frequent updates on OWU athletics and “Red Alert” games, and t-shirts have also been made to promote the events.

OWAC is also making a name for itself through community service, such as the local Special Olympics Bishop Games that it hosted last spring on campus. At this event, almost 100 special needs athletes competed in track and field events, drawing community and campus members together as 50 OWU student-athletes helped to run and support the event.

For Duffy, OWAC is an important tool to support student-athletes and engage the rest of campus with the exciting athletic program at OWU. “I think we often forget that we have about 500 student athletes on this campus that blend in every day with the regular students, but they put in hours of extra commitment to the athletic department and their own program. This group helps promote what the student-athletes do on and off campus and they bring the needs of the student-athlete to the athletic department’s attention and to the attention of everyone else on campus,” she says.

Student-athletes involved in OWAC also consider it to be very valuable to Ohio Wesleyan. For many, it is the chance to make a difference and increase their impact as athletes and leaders on campus. Rachel Seibel ’10, a member of OWAC’s Drug and Alcohol Policy Committee, enjoys shaping important decisions through involvement with OWAC.

“I think athletics are a huge part of Ohio Wesleyan, and we have the ability to lead both on and off the court/field,” she comments. “On the Drug and Alcohol Policy Committee, we want to stress that students know that athletics are a privilege instead of something that is just given to them. As members of OWAC, we are able to voice our opinions to the head committee in charge of the policy.

Erica Lowell ’11 agrees, saying that OWAC is “a great opportunity to get connected with the community of Delaware and give back.” Indeed, the members of OWAC seem most motivated by the chance to bring positive change to Ohio Wesleyan. As Pam Quigney ’11 puts it, “We can be leaders on campus by the sports that we play.”

– Amanda Zechiel, Ohio Wesleyan ’09

Photo credit: Lynn Albers, Ohio Wesleyan ’08

2009 Fall NCAC SAAC Meeting

The role of the SAAC

Wooster S.A.A.C Updates 11/9-11/15

Hello all!
Just to give you a few updates on some of things going on with the Wooster S.A.A.C group:

In October we aided our Residential Life Staff in participating in an event we call, "Hall-o-Treats". Children from the local area dressed in their best and scariest Halloween Costumes and flooded our campus in a night planned with tours through the dorms and a fun packed carnival. Our teams worked different booths by playing games with the children. The football had the children guess the right card and gave out candy, the soccer team had children try to kick a soccer ball past their scary masked goalie, the cheerleaders painted the faces with superheroes, pumpkins, and candy corn, the golf team let children try their hand at a eight foot put, and the lacrosse teams had the kids toss ghosts into the ghost bins. All in all our athletes had a blast handing out candy and hanging out with the kids. We can't wait to do it again next year!

Starting next week, our S.A.A.C group will be working in partnership with NIKE in a program called "Re-Use-A-Shoe". We have set up boxes in our gymnasium and our student center for people across campus to donate their old shoes to be recycled for children across the world who need them. We borrowed the idea from the Earlham Soccer team and are really excited for our turnout. We'll report back when he have the final results!

We also hosted Dr. Timothy C. Marchell to our campus last Thursday. Dr. Marchell is a clinical psychologist and Director of Mental Health Initiatives at Cornell University where he leads institutional strategies to address alcohol abuse and other mental health problems facing students and was visiting other NCAC schools in the area. We had a blast eating dinner with him and his presentation which drew upon his own experiences as a former college athlete and fraternity member and help develop innovative strategies to address hazing, alcohol abuse, and sexual violence and positive team-bonding strategies was amazing. Not only was his information well received by our athletes, but we also plan to take a lot of the material he gave us in preparation to help our captains and leaders across campus. We really hope he comes back soon to speak again!

Other events that we are in the process of planning: Our 1st Annual Wooster Fighting Scots Athlete Banquet in the spring A new dedication in our physical education center entitled, "Where Are They Now", highlighting the lives and work of some of our former athletes, A "Blood Bath" with Wittenberg University in order to donate blood to the Red Cross "Make A Wish Foundation" where each team will be sponsoring some child in the local area and making their Christmas list come true and a Hoops-For-Hunger event in conjunction with local vendors to give donate canned food and donations to those in need both in Ohio and across the globe in efforts with a company called "World Vision".

Good luck to our Field Hockey team who will be taking on No.16 Stevens in New Jersey in the first round of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey National Championship Tournament!

Good luck to all the other teams across the conference participating this week. I think that's all we have now to update you on, but look for us to report back next week with some new and exciting things that we're looking to do here at the College of Wooster!

-Wooster S.A.A.C Representatives

Hiram SAAC Collects Shoes for Soles4Souls

The Hiram SAAC collected new and lightly worn shoes for Soles4Souls Inc. a non-profit organization that gives away shoes to those in need worldwide. Between September 22 and October 17, members placed collection boxes throughout Hiram’s campus and accumulated 12 boxes, or 221 pairs of shoes ranging from children to adult sizes.

Nashville-based Soles4Souls™ facilitates the donations of both new and used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Since its inception, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.3 million pairs (or one pair every 23 seconds) to people in more than 60 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand, and the Sudan. The charity has been featured on CNN Headline News, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC News, FOX, CBS, and hundreds of regional outlets around North America.

Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.

Hiram's Kocka Named to NCAA SAAC

Hiram senior swimmer Amy Kocka has been named to the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as the representative for the North Coast Athletic Conference.

She will be one of 24 members of the national committee, consisting of a minimum of 12 men and 12 women, representing the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committees in the four geographical regions across the country. Amy was one of the conference SAAC members nominated for the national position by the NCAC and she was selected by the NCAA Division III SAAC.

Kenyon Student-Athletes Organize Refreshing Fundraiser

Before Saturday's 2 p.m. home women's basketball game against Oberlin, Kenyon Student-Athletes members will be selling 34 oz. water bottles featuring a "H2OPE" logo for seven dollars each. All the proceeds will go to the Interchurch Medical Association's Lifestraw project. Monetary donations also will be accepted, and the fundraiser will continue at Lords' and Ladies' contests on campus as long as supplies remain available.

Sophomore Rachel Goheen, a member of the women's soccer team, classmate Stephanie Caton, a Ladies softball player, were inspired to search for a way to help people in struggling areas of the world after Goheen returned from a summer abroad. They found IMA's Lifestraw emergency water purification initiative, which aims to stem the spread of cholera in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the World Health Organization states diarrheal disease kills approximately 28,000 people annually and is the leading cause of death in the country.

The Lifestraw is a portable water filter about the size of a large kazoo that can be carried easily on a string around a person's neck. According to the product's website, the straw offers relief from common diarrheal disease by effectively removing 99 percent of waterborne bacteria and viruses. Each Lifestraw is capable of filtering 185 gallons of water, enough to last a typical Congolese family the better part of a year.

Goheen and Caton hope sales warrant ordering more water bottles. Their ultimate goal is to increase awareness in the cause and make the fundraiser a regular staple at Kenyon sporting events throughout the year.

For more information on IMA's Lifestraw initiative or to make an on-line donation, visit the organization's website at www.interchurch.org. For more detailed information on the Lifestraw itself, go to www.lifestraw.com.