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During a game, meet, or match, a student athlete might look at the crowd for support, and unfortunately all they see is empty stands with a few parents. However, the new Greenhills Student Athlete Advisory Council aims to work with the athletic department to try and make athletics and athletic events more fun and appealing to students. The SAAC club looks at school and sports from a student perspective, and will try to appeal to students and create a field of support for the sport
“We want to help students join more sports,” said SAAC club member Twoey Bullock ‘27. “The athletic department doesn’t really know what the athletes really want or like, or what people want to see at games.”
Greenhills has been a more academically focused school in the past, but is trying to put a little more emphasis on supporting sports teams, and push participation, SAAC club member Twoey Bullock ‘27 said.
“There’s a lot of people who are thinking about joining a sport and they don’t for whatever reason,” said Bullock. “We are trying to encourage people to join and to promote ‘Hey, being on a Greenhills team is fun!’ It’s good for a college application, but it’s also good to make friends and learn a sport and they may end up really liking it.”
SAAC has goals for the school and for its athletics. They are trying to increase attendance for home games, events, and matches.
“The main purpose of SAAC is to help students have more of a voice,” said SAAC Co-Sponsor Taylor Parker. “Students will be in communication with each other, the Athletic Department, broader school leadership and have the opportunity to develop leadership skills, and help athletic programs.”
Aside from helping students to have more of a voice, there are many options for students in SAAC.
“Students will have the opportunity to either join the social media subcommittee,” said Parker. “game day operations, leadership and program development, and then they can also join the school spirit and events subcommittee.”
SAAC is modeled off of collegiate athletic advisory councils, and Athletic Director Tom Ward hopes to provide opportunities for the student voice in athletics.
“We are interested in providing opportunities for students to be involved in game day operations,” said Ward. “That could be broadcasting. That could be doing PA. It could be running the music and being the DJ for volleyball games, and playing music in between sets and during timeouts. Same with basketball, and doing starting lineups for field hockey and soccer.”
The main focus of SAAC is to have student voices involved in athletics, and to have new ways of being involved in sports other than actually playing on the team.
“We used to have a broadcasting crew that was driven by a few dedicated students,” said Ward “Once they graduated it kind of fizzled because there wasn’t good infrastructure within our department to support it. What I would like to have happen is to have that infrastructure come from SAAC.”
SAAC’s vision is to have different opinions on different athletics, possibly changing things about the athletics but also embracing tradition.
“I want to know what senior day should look like at Greenhills,” said Ward. “There should be some basic expectations that we can share with students, coaches, and parents. Every sport will be a little different because everyone puts their own touch on it. There is lots of space for individuality and to make sure that the boxes are checked for senior day.”
The student view on athletics is that they are good, but they could be improved.
Students want to see more attendance at athletic events and a better student section to cheer on the athletic teams.
The SAAC club is attempting to make the push to make all of Greenhills athletics better by making it so that they are more appealing to the students who might want to participate in the athletics. SAAC is helping athletics but also helping students have more of a voice, and to put them in leadership positions.
