A graduate assistant has brought an athletics organization from the NCAA to Ottawa University.
Marianne McGoron, a graduate assistant working for the OU athletic department while she earns her MBA on campus, said that the idea came from her undergraduate career at Wilmington College, a small division III NCAA school in Ohio.
“NCAA has this organization per school, Student Advisory Committee,” she said. “I was the president of that organization for two years.”
McGoron said the organization was in charge of setting up canned food drives and getting more people to the games. McGoron pitched the idea to OU coaches when she started at OU, and a similar group was started called the Braves Athletic Council, she said.
Senior Kyle Schreiner, president of the Braves Athletic Council and one of the two representatives from the Basketball team, said the organization’s mission statement focuses on campus unity, between teams and also with other groups on campus.
“We have a full kind of family oriented to the campus,” he said. “We also deal in community service.”
Shannon Donley, Braves Athletic Council’s secretary and one of the two representatives from the volleyball team, said that each team’s coach is responsible for the selection of two representatives, but that selection process can take the form of a vote from the entire team, so the selection process can take many forms. Donley was voted into the secretary position after she became a member of Braves Athletic Council.
“Mainly what I do is take notes,” she said. “I take role and make sure all our members are there.”
McGoron said that though she was the one who started the group, she only acts as an adviser to the group.
“It’s up to them to do the event,” she said. “I’m more of a guide. I’ve more or less taken it upon myself to be that main adviser because it’s like ‘been there, done that.'”
McGoron said the organization is looking to do community service projects in the future, but that the decisions about what was left up to the athletes.
“This is all run by the student athletes,” she said. “We want it to be all the teams together.”