DII Identity Workshop and Jenna Davisson Part 2
Thursday morning started early. All of the attendees met in the hotel lobby at 8:30 in the morning and were welcomed by Jill and Josh. Josh quickly gave us a few facts and figures in relation to DII – there are 292 members, 50% of those are public, and 56% of those that attend DII schools are female. Despite the NCAA gaining a majority of its income from DI March Madness (Basketball tournament), DII schools benefit from the money raised and are able to sponsor 12 male championships and 13 female championships. We also briefly talked about the DII championship festival concept where multiple sports compete in their national championships at the same site to create an Olympic feel with an opening ceremony centered around competition and sportsmanship.
A few other facts were discussed related to topics that make DII different from any other division in the NCAA. The DII national SAAC initiated a campaign to fundraise donations for Make-A-Wish nine years ago and, since that first year, all of the DII member schools have raised more than $3 million dollars for the foundation and have become one of the largest supporters of Make-A-Wish. DII has also made it a priority to supply funding for diversity grants for institutions and conferences to hire administrators and coaches on a full-time basis and, in the last calendar year, more than $1 million dollars has been distributed.
One of the other topics discussed was the partnership with CBS Sports Network and DII to nationally broadcast select football and basketball games to create a unique relationship and experience for those schools at DII. I found myself able to relate to most of the first that DII has been able to accomplish. As an SWA at UNCP, I have encouraged SAAC to raise money for Make-A-Wish and have been able to hear firsthand the stories from a few families that have been granted a wish. On September 5, 2013, UNCP football opened up its first home football game of the season with regional rival and then nationally-ranked Winston-Salem State in a CBS Sports Network battle that brought about the most-attended football game in the history of UNCP football and set the campus on a #BraveNation frenzie. Having the media attention showcased the football program but also the University as a whole, and having the Braves pull an upset over the Rams charged up school spirit for the rest of the season.
A few moments later, we took part in an ice breaker where we had to flip a table cloth with everyone on your colored team standing on the table cloth. Again, the “red” team took second, but only by a few seconds and, since this was such a cool ice breaker, I took it back to UNCP’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and used it in our next meeting.
The administrators broke away from the student-athletes in the first session of the day to discuss what DII means and what it stands for with contractors of Blacktop Creative. The contractors have been tasked to help rebrand what DII stands for and how it will be perceived in the future. Currently, the slogan is “I Chose” but, as discussed in the meeting, their positive and negative associations with the slogan can be changed to enhance the mission of DII. A major point I took away from this session was that, because the NCAA is broken into different divisions, it does not mean that one division is lesser or greater than another. Each division was created with a different purpose and strives to create better for each person affiliated with the respective division.
We were reunited with our colored groups for the first of three team challenges following the first break-out session. Carrie Michaels, the associate director of athletics and SWA at Shippensburg, opened the team challenge with an example of SAAC creating a great game day environment that Shippensburg does called “Jam the Gym.” Several of the topics discussed to bring the campus community to the basketball game involved giving away free t-shirts and fun prizes to be won with in-game crowd contests. With the hiring of a marketing director at UNCP a year ago, several of the ideas offered up had already been instituted and do create an enjoyable experience for those in attendance.
However, the “red” group came up with the idea of hosting a home cross country meet that would being with a fun run for the community, followed by a collegiate race to have home attendance at a sport with little campus support, and eventually lead into tailgating for another fall sport. The day would allow the community to participate in multiple events and not let a moment of fun end. The other groups also presented their ideas developed during this team challenge, but the “red” group was declared the winner.
Following lunch, the second session was a social media presentation given by Janet Judge, the president of Sports Law Associates and, if you ever get the chance to hear her speak, it’s a must! I will never forget her topics and suggestions on social media. She opened with a video called the social media revolution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8) and then proceeded to give tips on how to effectively use social media.
A few of the tips were to disable your location, proofread, consider the impact of your personal message, don’t tweet/comment at the expense of others, ignore negative media, give thanks and acknowledge those that are giving you a compliment, don’t post pictures that are controversial with alcohol or gums and PROOFREAD what you are writing. Once you hit send, you can never take back what you posted! In order to show what she was talking about, she pulled from the social media sites of those attending the conference and showed examples of good and bad social media posts which instantly brought the awareness of social media’s impact to the forefront of our thinking. Not only is your life being projected to the world through social media, but your eligibility, reputation, future employment and potential legal actions can be affected by one small post or picture on a social media site so it is essential to be careful what you say, how you say it and even if it should be said on a social media forum at all.
As the day continued, we received a presentation by Kelley Kish, the associate athletics director at Nova Southeastern on the best practices for SAAC on campus. She was joined by Bubba Baroniel, a baseball player for the Sharks and national SAAC member, and they talked about the members of SAAC needing to take responsibility for THEIR organization and controlling the events, planning and feeling vested in the event. It was suggested to create different executive board decisions for more members of SAAC to get them involved and dive deep into what they enjoy doing.
Prior to heading off to our community engagement activity at a local middle school, we were given a presentation on “workship.” It is imperative to reach out and touch our local communities through work and dedication with a goal in mind of making our communities greater. There is a clear difference between community engagement and community service. The process of engagement included interaction with the community and extending the campus to the community for a fun atmosphere that will be remembered, while service has a specific end goal, is generally a one-time occurrence and identified for a specific need.
We ended our time indoors by heading out to a middle school to take part in an annual carnival to give the students a fun night of laughs, while the parents were given information for the upcoming school year. I personally volunteered at the dunk booth and, by the time we opened the booth, my stomach hurt so bad from laughing with joy at the intensity of the student for wanting so badly to dunk their teachers. There was a consistent line for the booth and the teachers were soaking wet within the first five minutes. We had to leave before the event was over to make it to dinner on time but those students were amazed to hear about the opportunities available by going to college and how you can get to college through athletics.
Dinner was held at this beautiful local restaurant on the water with local music and good conversation. After soaking up all the information from the day which felt like drinking out of a fire hydrant, I was ready for a shower and bed. Just as I began to drift off to sleep, the fire alarm sounded and all of the hotel guests were ushered out of the hotel. I was so thankful to be standing outside in Florida at 11 p.m. rather than in a colder location because the breeze was so nice at that time of night.
Once the alarm was switched off, we were allowed to head back inside and it felt like five minutes from once my head hit the pillow that we were up again ready to go for our final day at the seminar. Friday started very early, but knowing you are in Florida, makes you wake up with a smile.
Within the final four hours, we had our final session and two team challenges. Bradley Maldonado, a cross country runner at Lincoln Memorial and the national SAAC president, talked about the importance of Make-A-Wish. There are also a variety of ways that SAAC can help through venues like Team Impact and adopting certain foundations to with work directly.
In the second team challenge, we were tasked with developing a community engagement event in our respective groups. Karen Stromme, the associate director of athletics and SWA at Minnesota Duluth, gave the example of her ice fishing event that serves as the major fundraiser for her athletics department. The entire community helps in advertising this event and a major of the student-athletes come out to volunteer. For example, the football players dig the holes for the fishermen, while the cross country athletes run the fish to the measuring station to be logged for a drawing at the end of the event. She then had us break into our groups and create an engagement event that would benefit our campuses.
The “red” group decided on an idea that I brought up that relates to UNCP. Lumbee Homecoming is an event the town of Pembroke hosts every year for the Native Americans to engage in a week-long celebration around the local traditions and customs. Since the University is used in some of the festivities, we developed a plan for the athletes to help give tours and bring more participation to campus. Teams could give clinics for the youth, participate in the parade, have community scrimmages with athletes, education others on the importance of Lumbee traditions, market the event to other facets and share the experience of being a student-athlete on campus. Even though the “red” group came in second again, we were recognized as having the most diverse and community understanding engagement event.
The final team challenge discussed how to implement these topics discussed at the seminar. Josh stated that there is an engagement award that every school can apply for with a monetary prize, as well as a monetary amount given for any lesson adopted and implemented by SAAC that was discover that this seminar. For more information on that portion, contact myself or NCAA DII.
Finally, as we were about to leave, Chris Southard, the men’s lacrosse coach at Palm Beach Atlantic, gave us inspiration to walk away from this meeting and make a change in ourselves and those we encounter. He stated to refuse to be good because we can be great, to use our gifts to make a difference in the life of someone else and that attitude is everything. It is always nice to do something for others, but it makes it that much more rewarding to receive a thank you for those efforts, so don’t forget to say thank you to others.
As a student-athlete, in DII it is important to remember that you are a student, athlete and a champion for yourself, your sport and your community. As I reflect on the this experience from a month ago, I am so thankful that I was given the chance to interact and meet not only student-athletes from every conference in DII, but administrators, coaches and key individuals at the NCAA that are at the forefront of making positive changes for college athletes.
I would suggest that, if you have the opportunity to attend this in the future, that you do so because it will impact your life and you can therefore go impact someone else’s life. You only have one life so don’t pass up these opportunities!!!
My final thanks go out to my “red” group, the NCAA, the Peach Belt Conference, UNCP and those that have inspired me to be where I am today. All I have to say is watch out because I’m ready to impact those around me for the better.
