CORVALLIS, Ore. – This year has been difficult to navigate, but the Cascade Collegiate Conference made connecting with its SAAC representatives a priority. After polling the reps in the beginning of the year, the conference office saw the student-athletes were most interested in leadership and student-athlete health and the CCC wanted to cater to those interests.
In December, the CCC brought in former Director of Student-Athlete Health and Wellness for the NAIA Russ Richardson to discuss student-athlete health and in February, the CCC brought in Dr. Michael Voight to talk to the group about leadership.
Richardson was responsible for leading the process for development of policies and identifying resources that promote health and wellness for NAIA student-athletes across the country. In that capacity, he worked collaboratively with sports medicine professionals, member institutions, and student-athletes as those policies are developed.
Dr. Voight has 20 years of experience providing team, mental toughness, and leadership consulting all sorts of sports and levels [pro, Olympic, top Division I], and has written multiple books on leadership in sports. He has worked with college teams like USC and the University of Texas and teaches leadership at the graduate level.
To further assist the student-athletes as they begin to think about the transition to life post-graduation and collegiate competition, the CCC is doing a Q&A panel with three former student-athletes Tuesday night. The SAAC reps will get the opportunity to ask Rebecca Styner (former cross country and track athlete at Lewis-Clark State College), Nolan Kistler (former wrestler at California Baptist University) and Danny Day (former men’s soccer player at the University of Redlands).
The panel was put together based on former athletes who have or are pursuing careers the SAAC reps are interested in: teaching, law, and athletic administration. Styner (formerly Rebecca Saxton) is a first and second grade teacher, Kistler is in law school at Chapman University with aspirations to become a district attorney, and Day is the Director for Athletics & Recreation at Whatcom Community College.