By Brianna Lawless (Brockport) and Olivia Ingalsbe (New Paltz)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - To kick off Division III Week, Student-Athlete Advisory Committee members from each State University of New York Athletic Conference institution - Brockport, Buffalo State, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh and Potsdam - met in Syracuse to continue the path of unity within the athletic conference, share ideas, offer support, educate on Mental Health, and enhance relationships and leadership.

This weekend was the first in-person retreat since the Fall of 2019 due to the pandemic, and all representatives didn't hesitate to jump right into bonding and connecting with one another to repair any disconnects SUNYAC SAAC experienced as a result of being virtual.

The retreat started on Saturday evening, April 2, with a bonding dinner at Destiny Mall, filled with games like Corn Hole and Headbandz. From dinner the group moved to a team bonding event at the Museum of Intrigue, where the representatives from each school were mixed into groups and given various clues using teamwork to solve the mystery. Saturday ended with a brief Meet & Greet to learn one another's names and campus affiliations.

On Sunday morning April 3, the day began with a Special Olympics Unified Bowling and lunch event at Apex Entertainment that featured 17 Special Olympic Athletes competing with more than 30 SAAC Student-Athletes.

This year Division III and Special Olympics celebrate A Decade of Inclusion marking the 10th year of their partnership, making this event particularly exciting for all involved. The SAAC Student-Athletes and Special Olympics Athletes had the opportunity to interact with, and get to know one another, as they enjoyed the fun and competition of bowling.

At the end of the bowling competition, the SUNYAC SAAC held an awards ceremony where the student-athletes presented medals to the Special Olympic participants.

The Sunday afternoon session meant suiting up in business professional attire to start the first of two business sessions for SUNYAC SAAC. Commissioner Tom DiCamillo started off the session with a more formal introduction of himself and thanking the group for making the commitment to be present for the retreat.

Next, the Executive Board members - Brianna Lawless, Olivia Ingalsbe, Jessica Ader, Michael Losak, Erin Clune and Lauren Sposili - gave descriptions of each position (President, Vice President of Legislation, National SAAC Representative, Vice President of Communications, Vice President of Community Engagement and two Cabinet Alternate positions) and the election process. 

While presenting her role as president and experience over the past five and a half years being involved in SUNYAC SAAC, Brianna Lawless shared with the group that "Before college, I wasn't the type of person to take on roles because I'm not much of a public speaker, but SAAC really changed my perspective and I realized we are so much more than just athletes."

This was the first of many times the concept of being more than an athlete or student-athlete was brought up and the significant role SAAC facilitates in providing a space for student-athlete advocacy.

Michael Losak, Brianna Lawless and Olivia Ingalsbe gave a brief presentation recapping their experience at the 2022 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis in January. The presentation included an overview of two educational sessions, one on the new Sexual Violence Policy and the other on the effects of the pandemic concerning racism and mental health. After the recap, National SAAC representative Jessica Ader explained the new NCAA Constitution and the proposed legislation that was adopted and defeated. Out of the nine proposals, seven were adopted, one was referred, one was defeated with a motion to divide, and one was completely defeated.

The session then transitioned into an open forum where each school shared their initiatives, upcoming events, parts that are going well and any struggles they may have. This created an environment to spread ideas, give advice and work together as an athletic conference to grow and make one another stronger.

The SUNYAC has had a large commitment to the mental health initiative over the past years, and this year was no different. The group had the opportunity to not only listen to speakers Mark and Nanette Potter (Depression: The Silent Epidemic) and Jerimy Blowers (Mental Health and the Pandemic), but also their peer student-athlete and SUNYAC SAAC member Michael Losak.

Each of these presentations offered various perspectives regarding mental health, personal experiences, and advice. The wide variety of stories allowed the information to resonate on many different levels within the group, while also providing options for techniques and tools to improve mental health and performance.

On Sunday night, Mark Potter's story and presentation were followed-up with a fun bonding experience and dinner at Dave & Busters, which then led into another speaker: Dr. Maggie Tieman.

Dr. Maggie gave her interactive presentation Unlocking Your Code: Enhancing Relationships and Leadership Within the Athletic Community, where she emphasized how critical understanding people is in relation to any individual, team or organization's success. We all see the world and people surrounding us in different ways which makes us each respond differently. The workshop she administered combined knowledge of human behavior, through the use of the DISC Behavioral Assessment Tool along with interactive activities.

This amazing experience helped each individual understand personal preferences for communication and decision-making styles that we can now bring back to each of our respected teams.

The second business session was held on Monday morning, with a focus on elections of the 2022-23 Executive Board members. The concluding results yielded the following: 

• Brianna Lawless (Brockport) as President
• Michael Drywa (Buffalo State) as Vice President of Legislation
• Caleb Munski (Oswego) as Vice President of Communications
• Flo Hunte (Cortland) as Vice President of Community Engagement
• Dyamon Hunter (Potsdam) as Cabinet Alternate
• Ray Paull (Oswego) as Cabinet Alternate

Afterwards, the SUNYAC SAAC awarded Tom DiCamillo with a SUNYAC SAAC Appreciation Award to demonstrate their deep appreciation and respect for all DiCamillo has done, does and will do for SUNYAC Student-Athletes. 

Overall, this weekend opened endless opportunities to engage and advocate for student-athletes across the SUNYAC. To offer a few testaments to the inspiring experience everyone involved in this 2022 retreat had, during the open forum SUNY Cortland representative Brees Segala expressed that "People always remember how you make them feel, and the things we did this weekend and that we all do in our own collective communities reflect that." This couldn't be more accurate. The environment this group created left imprints on all, notably a feeling of belonging.

Additionally, after the retreat came to an end, Lawless stated "After being one of the only returners coming back from the pandemic, I was shocked to see how engaged and committed this new group was throughout the whole weekend at the retreat," highlighting the success of this weekend. The retreat ended with many goodbyes, new friendships, ideas to bring back to campuses and a greater connection among SUNYAC rivals.

Favorite Parts & Biggest Takeaways

Brockport

• Representatives: Briana Lawless, Jade Rinaldo, Alex Fusani
• Favorite Part: Getting to form new relationships with like-minded people across the conference as well as having those hard conversations needed to advocate for each other as student-athletes.
• Biggest Takeaway: When it comes to mental health, "the worst thing you can do is do nothing." – Mark Potter

Buffalo State

• Representative: Michael Drywa
• Favorite Part: The Special Olympics Unified Bowling event was fun because although I did not meet everyone individually, my team with Tony and Dan was awesome! It was a fun space to cut all social barriers this world put up and just live.
• Biggest Takeaway: The group. This past weekend not a single soul was left alone. Everyone mingled with everyone, some friendly, some competitive, but at the end we all developed a foundation of understanding, trust, and respect which is a tradition we need to stick to so that we can carry that methodology even when we're gone.

Cortland

• Representatives: Brees Segala, Nakoa Zuger, Flo Hunte and Samantha Nothnagel
• Favorite Part: The Museum of Intrigue!
• Biggest Takeaway: There is value in our community and how important it is to connect with people no matter the rivals or bad blood. We are all athletes fighting the same battles and it's important to stick with your community.

Fredonia

• Representatives: Mindy Doktor, Aaron Mendez and Luc Williams
• Favorite Part: Meeting new people and being able to interact and talk about what they do at their schools.
• Biggest Takeaway: Learning ways of how to get all the teams involved on campus and rooting on fellow teams.

Geneseo

• Representatives: Lauren Sposili, Madison Hoyt, Emily Haber and Harrison Dignan
• Favorite Part: The Museum of Intrigue because it was a cool way for us to break the ice!
• Biggest Takeaway: To never not ask the question or never not check in on someone because that little thing could make a huge difference.

New Paltz

• Representatives: Olivia Ingalsbe, Elias Elcock and Gracianna Serravillo
• Favorite Part: The Special Olympics Unified Bowling event! Incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by such a large group of people that were so excited to interact with one another. Truly better unified.
• Biggest Takeaway: We never know what someone else's thoughts look like and as an athletic community we have to continue to make those conversations more open and share stories to fight the stigma.

Oneonta

• Representatives: Erin Clune and Michael Losak
• Favorite Part: Being able to meet, get to know and learn from the many other representatives from SUNYAC schools. We also loved every presentation.
• Biggest Takeaway: Learning how the other SAAC's work and some of their initiatives. We plan to take what we learned and implement similar initiatives at our SAAC.

Oswego

• Representatives: Caleb Munski, Anthony Cascen, Ray Paull and Bryce Smith
• Favorite Part: Spending time with the other schools at The Museum of Intrigue. While the meetings were extremely informative and helpful, the time spent there team building and becoming familiar with everyone was extremely valuable to us! 
• Biggest Takeaways:
  • Each school has different needs and could use other school's ideas to help grow and refine.
  • Mental health is more relevant than we first thought. We knew that many of our athletes struggle with mental health, but we were stunned by the percentage of all athletes and coaches that are affected.
  • The Special Olympics Unified Bowling event inspired us to work with them in the future.

Plattsburgh

• Representative: Amanda Cohen
• Favorite Part: Being able to bond with people from different schools and being able to hear ideas about SAAC and what people have been doing from each school.
• Biggest Takeaway: Mental health issues can happen to anyone and at any time and it is only stronger in the athletic world so everyone needs to be an advocate and be aware. Also, how important building a community is.

Potsdam

• Representatives: Jessica Ader, Dyamon Hunter, Kiernan Morgan and Raymond Jones
• Favorite Part: Connecting with people across the conference.
• Biggest Takeaway: It's okay to not be okay.

Special Thanks

Thank you to Tom DiCamillo for always putting Student-Athletes first, creating endless opportunities and making the 2022 SUNYAC SAAC Spring Retreat not only possible, but also great. While DiCamillo helps facilitate the student-athletes' needs, his main priority for this committee is that it is led completely by the student-athletes. He fully encourages and supports SUNYAC SAAC members to make all the decisions, while advocating for the thoughts and concerns to be heard.

Additional thanks extended to the incredible speakers - Mark and Nanette Potter, Dr. Maggie Tieman, Jerimy Blowers and SUNYAC SAAC's own Michael Losak.