Saturday, December 25, 2010

Oberlin SAAC's Busy Winter

November and December were busy months for Oberlin’s SAAC as the student athletes contributed to a number of proactive causes.

In the month of November, or rather, Movember, Oberlin's men’s cross country team let their mustaches grow wild and raised $2,456 dollars for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG. The fundraising effort was captained by Oberlin senior Kiron Roy. In addtion, the athletics department staff raised $399, bringing Oberlin’s total contribution to $2,855.

During the reading period leading up to finals week Oberlin’s SAAC group held a Study Break session in the college’s Science Center. From 6-10 p.m. members of Oberlin’s SAAC helped student’s relieve stress by playing games (corn hole, bowling with plastic pins, jump ropes, hula hoops) offered healthy snacks (apples and bananas) and informed the student body about what SAAC is all about!

Finally, SAAC helped organize a food drive and below are pictures from our efforts. Happy Holidays!













Tuesday, September 28, 2010

New Developments for Oberlin SAAC

With the start of the 2010-2011 year, Oberlin's SAAC has implemented a few new features. To begin with, we have a new group of officers leading the way! Here's how it looks:

Co-chairs: Albert Davila & Rob Bond
Secretary: Kate Melanson
Treasurer: Courtney Konow
Communications Director: Hal Sundt
Publicity Director: Ben Turchin

In addition, our SAAC group has come up with a new way to form bonds across different athletic teams. The concept is called OC Unite! Each team is paired up with a different team from a different sports season. These "YeoFriends" (the teams partnered up together) agree to go to at least two home games with their entire team to support the other team. Here is how our teams are paired up!

Women's Softball ------ Men's XC
Women's XC ----------- Men's Basketball
Women's Field Hockey ------ Men's Tennis
Women's LAX --------- Men's Football
Women's T&F --------- Men's Soccer
Women's Swim/Dive -------- Men's LAX
Women's Basketball -------- Men's T&F
Women's Volleyball --------- Men's Swim/Dive
Women's Tennis ------ Men's Golf
Women's Soccer ----- Men's Baseball

We're all excited for another great year of sports and SAAC! Talk to you soon.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

OC Sports Swap

On Monday, April 5th, the Oberlin College Athletics Department held its first ever Sports Swap! Participants started with a warmup lap around the track and then went off to get a taste for a new sport. Athletes from all of the different varsity teams stepped out of their athletic comfort zones to learn a variety of different sports including volleyball, basketball, baseball/softball, track & field, lacrosse, field hockey and soccer. Varsity coaches made sure everyone learned some new skills and shared a few laughs as well. OC 's first Sports Swap was a success and we even have video to prove it!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Allegheny SAAC Update

Allegheny College SAAC recently hosted an all-athlete talent show on campus. It was the first major event that SAAC has hosted on it's own. The turnout was much more positive than we even expected! Pictures from the event can be seen on the link posted below.

http://www.alleghenysports.com/photo_gallery.aspx

We have been debating about weight room safety procedures. Currently, we have no monitors and the majority of students lift on their own. In light of the Southern Cal accident, we have been talking about this a lot in our meetings. Any suggestions? The best we have come up with is to have assistant coaches monitor the weight room at different times during the day.
~Allegheny Reps

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

NCAC SAAC Leadership Workshop

The NCAC held its first SAAC Leadership Workshop this past weekend. Twenty-eight student-athletes gathered with athletic administrators from all 10 North Coast members to spend a weekend exploring their leadership potential. Sessions featured topics ranging from the definition of leadership, to nutritional information, Myers-Briggs personality traits, life after athletics, diversity and TIPS training.



Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

NCAC SAAC Meeting, Jan. 31, 2010

Not pictured: Frankie Morales, Mary Meyers, Charles Small, Alexa Bean, Evalyn Tandy, Jerome Ray, Kelly Sprague, Jared Haas, Erica Ford, Corey Trusso, Anne Beauch

Friday, January 29, 2010

Bishop Champion Games hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University

Bishop Champion Games April 18th, 2010

Being a part of the Bishop Champion Games last year was amazing for so many. We had a day filled with fun and accomplishments. I was honored to see my fellow OWU athletes working with these special needs individuals with such kindness and love. It was a stressful few weeks leading up to the games trying to make sure that we had everything ready for the athletes to compete. We put long nights and countless hours into making these games a success. Despite this hard work, the rewarding feeling that came from the games themselves proved to be more than worth it.

The main objective of the Bishop Games is to spread the gift of athletics with all special needs athletes no matter their level of competition. We strive to give back the abilities we have been given as college athletes to those who are less athletically fortunate. So as a result, it is a passion of all who are involved to give those athletes with special needs, whether cognitive or physical, a chance to compete at historic Selby Stadium performing their favorite track and field events.

As a group, we want all those who come in contact with the event to come away with memories that will last a lifetime. It is a dream for this event to become an annual event hosted at OWU. We have high goals and aspirations for the coming year to make this event reach out to an even larger group of individuals from more diverse places. We want OWU to be a place where special needs athletes from the area as well as those from further away, feel like when they come to a game that they can wear their Bishop Champion Games t-shirt and proudly feel like they know our athletes personally.

An objective that we are working on for this year is to raise even more money so we can give the athletes even more free apparel and so we can improve the event itself. Last year the athletes received free admission to compete, a t-shirt, a water bottle with our logo, an engraved dog tag, and a gold medal for the winner of the events at each age group. The Bishop Champion Games touched the lives of 97 special needs athletes, countless parents and family members, and over 50 OWU student athletes who volunteered. We had families and athletes asking from the time the event started, “So when are we are doing this again next year?” The smiles on the faces of the athletes were enough to make all the work that we had put into this event seem to fade into pure joy for those lives we could touch. Joy and excitement just poured out of all the athletes. It was evident in so many ways.

The days experiences were inspirational, but just to give you an idea I will name a few: when athletes had the medal put on their neck by a college athlete, when a champion of the event along with the 8 top finishers got to stand on the special podium, when their name was announced over the loud speaker, or simply when they got to have a professional photograph taken with the Bishop. The last event of the day called the Bishop relay gave the athletes not only a chance to compete against themselves, but our very own OWU athletes ran in the relay as the anchor leg.

Everything about the day was perfect because we as college athletes were able to touch more lives than we could ever have imagined. So this year we are calling to our fellow NCAC schools and challenging you to join us to make this day a success. The NCAC is full of competent, skilled, and passionate individuals who we would love to see helping us with this event. This is an event that takes us away from our competitive roots, and places us on a common ground as athletes who want to change the lives of others. So I am looking forward to hearing responses, ideas, or interest in aiding us on our quest to make the Bishop Champion Games even more of a success this year.

One goal, one love, let’s make it happen.

Best Wishes,
Sean Patrick


http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20090424/athletics/bishopGames.html (link to a short article before the event last year)