Welcome back to school Anteaters! We hope everyone had an amazing summer and are ready to start the school year off strong! To start the year, we are going to highlight the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee or as we all know it SAAC. You might know SAAC from the awesome barbeque they organized last year, or even the workshops held in Al Irwin every quarter, but here, we are going to go over everything that SAAC does and all of the new additions it has this year.
 
As you know SAAC is composed of representative athletes from every sport, but this year there is now an executive board that helps organize the committee. Here is your 2023-2024 executive board: Chaselyn Amos as President, Jenna Schlatter as Vice President, Sophia Zago as Secretary, Sameen Andar and Roman Warren in Inclusive Excellence, and Ali Amiri, Kiana Briggs, and Cameron Smith in Athlete Unification. This group of athletes works to foster a community within athletics as well as plan and organize different events and workshops throughout the year.
 
Chaselyn Amos, the board president, wants the main focus this year to be increasing the attendance at every event. A huge part of SAAC is creating a community within all of athletics, and that means every team, not just hanging out with friends within your own circle. Chaselyn notes that, "It's so easy to get into the routine of just going to school and practice and tuning everything else out." I know that I can personally relate to this; what we do is very hard. Having to balance performing at a high level in school and in our sport is probably one of the hardest things we will do in our life. To get through it, it seems easy to just tune everything else out and stay inside your circle but in doing this we miss out on a huge part of the student-athlete experience.
 
Being a collegiate athlete is so much more than playing a sport and going to school. We are a part of something bigger, we get to play the sport we love and represent our school at the highest level. No one knows what we go through every day. No one knows how much work we have put in to be here. No one knows everything we have given up to succeed. But we are all going through this together. This is why we can understand each other's struggles on a level that no one else will. We can celebrate each other's success because we know what it took to get there. We all play different sports but we are connected by something so much deeper than the name on our chest. This is what SAAC is trying to remind us of. We are a community, and it is our job as athletes to take steps toward making this a reality.
 
So, if you are wondering what's the point of SAAC, that is the point. As the Student-Athlete Development Coordinator, Hannah Mitchell is pushing this narrative. She is in charge of the holistic development of athletes and does this through career and leadership development, being on the advisory board for multiple cultural affinity groups, and being the leader of SAAC. Her main goal is to help athletes transition from life in sports to the world outside of college athletics. This is anything from helping set up a LinkedIn account to trying to figure out your identity outside of sports.
 
As an athlete, how can you interact with SAAC? Although the representatives are going to be the ones going to meetings that does not mean that other athletes cannot participate. As mentioned before, participating in events and supporting other teams is a huge way to get involved but another way is giving feedback! Please come to events and let the SAAC reps know what you thought of it. What did you like about it? Is there anything that could make it better? These events are tailored to help the student-athlete, so the goal is to make these events the most effective they can be. To make this happen it is necessary for every team to show up, participate, and give their feedback!
 
Looking forward to this year, here are a couple events you can't miss! To kick off the year there is the Welcome Back Barbeque for student-athletes on September 26. There will be snacks, games, and of course your fellow Anteaters! Next, there will be career week during Week 4 of every quarter. Career week consists of workshops every day that help athletes prepare for life after sports. Some of the workshops are learning how to interview and learning how to set up a LinkedIn page. All of these workshops are uniquely tailored to student-athletes which is hard to find once you graduate. Lastly, there are weekly recovery yoga sessions that are going to be held in the upper level of the Crawford Gym on Mondays at 4pm and Wednesdays at 2pm. Showing up to these events are small steps each athlete can take to not only help themselves but to contribute to the Anteater community! Let's make this year one to remember!


2023-24 SAAC Executive Board
President: Chaselyn Amos - Women's Track & Field
Vice President: Jenna Schlatter - Women's Tennis
Secretary: Sophia Zago - Women's Cross Country/Track & Field
Directors of Inclusive Excellence: Sameen Andar - Women's Cross Country/Track & Field; Roman Warren - Men's Soccer
Directors of Athlete Unification: Ali Amiri - Men's Tennis; Kiana Briggs - Women's Golf; Cameron Smith - Men's Cross Country/Track & Field