Today: Mar 29, 2024

SAAC hosts first ‘Pie an Athlete’ event

Jaylen Carr Sports Editor

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, SAAC hosted ‘Pie an Athlete,’ a fundraiser to help raise money for their committee and bring students and athletes together. 

 “We are hosting this event to raise money for SAAC, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, so basically, we are the voice of the student-athletes at Southern,” Co-SAAC president Tim O’Shea said. “We just want to raise money because that is our budget; we raise money for ourselves, and we thought this would be a fun event to get the whole student body involved to pie an athlete.” 

O’Shea said SAAC does legislation and hosts events to connect athletes and students. 

“The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is a committee made up of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience and to offer input on the rules, regulations, and policies that affect student-athletes live,” according to the athletic website. “The SAAC at SCSU is intended to serve as a conduit of communication among student-athletes, coaches, and athletics administrators on issues to improve the student-athlete experience and promote growth and education through sports participation.” 

Field hockey athlete and SAAC member Tori Geaglone said she runs the social media aspect of the committee and thought that ‘Pie an Athlete’ would be a great idea to incorporate everyone on campus.  
“We want to do a lot of events that involve the school, our athletes, and branch non-athletes and athletes,” Geaglone, a senior, said. “We are doing this on the Academic Quad to help bridge that gap.” 

Track and field athlete Julia Mansfield, a junior, said she is a member of SAAC and was willing to help with this event. Even though she is not part of the Eboard, she just wanted to get involved, Mansfield said. 

“I’m just here to help SAAC and to get involved with our athletics,” Mansfield said. “We want to fundraise for more SAAC events so we can help better our athletics.” 

Track and field athlete Ella Maclean, a sophomore, said this event’s purpose wasn’t only to raise money for their organization but also to bring awareness.  
“We want to raise awareness for the athletes,” Maclean said. “It is just a fun thing to do and a more fun way to reach out to the community rather than just setting up a table and talking about what we are doing.” 

O’Shea said it is a fun event in that everyone gets involved.  

Track and field athlete Mackenzie Glenn, a junior, said, “We are hosting this event just to raise money for the SAAC program, and that money goes right back to our athletes to host different events and to support our athletes in any way we can.” 

Glenn said it is crucial to support athletes because they work hard all year. “Just to know that we have that support from our athletic program means a lot to us as athletes and keeps us motivated even when we feel like we are in a rut.” 

O’Shea said he and other SAAC members created ‘Pie an Athlete’ through a meeting.  

“It was basically kind of a result of a brainstorm session,” O’Shea said. “How can we raise money, how can we fund our organization, and at the same time get the word out there about our organization and give people the information about it.” 

Geaglone said through the brainstorming session that they noticed that other universities used this similar event through social media. She said this idea— ‘Pie an Athlete’ would work well on campus. 

“Pie, an athlete, is something that I’ve seen before,” O’Shea said. “I thought it would be a fun thing to do here.” 

O’Shea said he used to work at a camp in Southington, Connecticut, where they used to pie people all the time.  

SAAC tries to have events frequently, but the committee does a lot of community service throughout the month, O’Shea said. “We are always trying to get out to the community.” 

Geaglone said the committee is looking to have more outdoor events since it’s getting warmer.  

“We are trying to make sure that the non-athletes be able to relate with the athletes and vice versa and see how we can come together as a community, Geaglone said.  

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