North Carolina State University Athletics
SAAC Bonds with Retreat to Durant Nature Park
8/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Aug. 19, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. -
The NC State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) held their annual retreat at Durant Nature Park on August 16.
The SAAC consists of representatives from each of the 23 intercollegiate sports at NC State, and uses their yearly retreat to plan for the upcoming academic year.
"It was nice to get to connect with leaders from a lot of different sports team, but a lot of it was working with communication, not only with other teams but within our own team," said Greg Dame, a junior on the cross country team. "When you have a large freshman class like we have on our team, how do we break the ice with them? That's what I think will be very helpful for our team."
SAAC president Jana Angel, a member of the volleyball team, was able to take time to speak with the group before the trip. Typically, teams that compete in the fall are unable to attend the retreat.
Monday morning, the SAAC met with Akiba Byrd, Sr., of One Village-One World Consulting, Inc. upon arriving at Durant Nature Park. Byrd led them through various activities and team building exercises meant to foster listening and communication skills within the group.
"As we got into it, we all really enjoyed it," said Dame. "It was a fun and interesting experience to work on breaking down communication barriers and getting comfortable with a group of people you aren't necessarily familiar with."
In their planning sessions, the committee addressed new student-athlete orientation (which took place August 17), the welcome back dinner (Aug. 18), and the student-athlete talent show (scheduled for October).
"The talent show is planned for this year, October 18th. We want to be more organized than last year," said Dame. "To reach that goal, we focused on improving communication not only between different sports teams at NC State, but also between athletics and the student body in general."
At the conclusion of the retreat, the Adventure Program from Raleigh Parks and Recreation hosted the group, breaking up the committee into three teams for a regatta. After a safety briefing and a short lesson in knot tying, teams had a 30-minute time limit to build a raft before racing across the lake and back.
