Completed Event: Women's Golf versus The Southern on September 8, 2025 , , 5th of 13
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James Madison
vs The Southern
5th of 13
James Madison University | Official Athletics Site
Sisk and Berdnikoff Attend CAA SAAC Leadership Summit
11/28/2016 8:35:00 AM | Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
Last week, two student-athletes had the opportunity to represent JMU at the 2016 Colonial Athletic Association Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Leadership Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. Adam Sisk, a senior baseball athlete, and Alex Berdnikoff a senior on the men's tennis team, traveled to Boston with Kevin Schafer, a Graduate Assistant responsible for student-athlete leadership development and SAAC here at JMU. The leadership summit took place on Nov. 6-7 and was hosted by Northeastern University.
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Sisk and Berdnikoff were selected to represent JMU due to their open schedules, leadership roles on their teams, and their involvement in JMU's SAAC program.
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The leadership summit kicked off with a speech by Frank McPhee, Account Executive for Boston Globe Media Partners. McPhee, who was a former Northeastern athlete, spoke about his student-athlete experience and life after college athletics. Following McPhee's presentation, the participants had the opportunity to watch a presentation by Ben Graves, Founder and CEO of Stacked Sports and Alex Sutton, Chief Technology Officer at Stacked Sports, a web app designed to help student-athletes build a stronger presence on social media. On the final day of the conference, student-athletes were able to discuss "hot topic" issues with the group.
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As a whole, the CAA shared some of its plans, which focus on developing the student-athlete in all aspects, while also adding more community involvement to the slate.
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Kevin Shafer said, "A lot of the emphasis was on the time demands of the student athlete. It seems like now the NCAA and the CAA are pushing for the holistic development and well-being of the student athlete. I also learned that the CAA, more so than other conferences, is really service-oriented and there are a lot of campaigns I think it's a really high priority, which is really commendable."
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Some of these service campaigns include the CAA blood drive, the CAA canned-food drive, and other initiatives regarding raising cancer awareness.
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Sisk appreciated learning about how other CAA programs tackle issues in addition to hearing some of the future plans for the CAA.
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"The best part of the trip was hearing how other schools handle issues and learning what they do well and bringing that back to JMU. The CAA and the commissioner have big plans for the conference so it was great to get an insider's look at the future of our conference," Sisk said.
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Some of those future plans include obtaining a new television contract, featuring a member institution once a week on the CAA website, and increasing the emphasis on community service and engagement.
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Berdnikoff, on the other hand, left with some more leadership skills and tips to foster effective communication within SAAC.
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"Personally, I think that I learned how to have more of a leadership role and take my teammates' and other student athletes' perspectives and opinions and present them to a higher board. I think here at JMU, when we're in SAAC, we can now more easily take other people's opinions and fight for them," Berdnikoff said.
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One universal highlight of the trip was meeting Joe D'Antonio, the new CAA Commissioner.
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Schafer said, "We were able to meet him and he introduced himself to the group and took questions and it was really incredible how personable and down to earth he is. He really cared about every single athlete's question, no matter what it was and I think that really shows the impact a leader can have on the group while also instilling the familial atmosphere."
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After each Division-I conference holds a similar Leadership Summit, the NCAA hosts a national SAAC conference. This year, the NCAA SAAC Conference will take place on Jan. 18-21, 2017, in Nashville, Tennessee. The CAA SAAC representative, Derek Trott from the College of William and Mary men's track and field team, will represent the Colonial Athletic Association and speak about some of the concerns of the student-athletes in the CAA.Â
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Sisk and Berdnikoff were selected to represent JMU due to their open schedules, leadership roles on their teams, and their involvement in JMU's SAAC program.
Â
The leadership summit kicked off with a speech by Frank McPhee, Account Executive for Boston Globe Media Partners. McPhee, who was a former Northeastern athlete, spoke about his student-athlete experience and life after college athletics. Following McPhee's presentation, the participants had the opportunity to watch a presentation by Ben Graves, Founder and CEO of Stacked Sports and Alex Sutton, Chief Technology Officer at Stacked Sports, a web app designed to help student-athletes build a stronger presence on social media. On the final day of the conference, student-athletes were able to discuss "hot topic" issues with the group.
Â
As a whole, the CAA shared some of its plans, which focus on developing the student-athlete in all aspects, while also adding more community involvement to the slate.
Â
Kevin Shafer said, "A lot of the emphasis was on the time demands of the student athlete. It seems like now the NCAA and the CAA are pushing for the holistic development and well-being of the student athlete. I also learned that the CAA, more so than other conferences, is really service-oriented and there are a lot of campaigns I think it's a really high priority, which is really commendable."
Â
Some of these service campaigns include the CAA blood drive, the CAA canned-food drive, and other initiatives regarding raising cancer awareness.
Â
Sisk appreciated learning about how other CAA programs tackle issues in addition to hearing some of the future plans for the CAA.
Â
"The best part of the trip was hearing how other schools handle issues and learning what they do well and bringing that back to JMU. The CAA and the commissioner have big plans for the conference so it was great to get an insider's look at the future of our conference," Sisk said.
Â
Some of those future plans include obtaining a new television contract, featuring a member institution once a week on the CAA website, and increasing the emphasis on community service and engagement.
Â
Berdnikoff, on the other hand, left with some more leadership skills and tips to foster effective communication within SAAC.
Â
"Personally, I think that I learned how to have more of a leadership role and take my teammates' and other student athletes' perspectives and opinions and present them to a higher board. I think here at JMU, when we're in SAAC, we can now more easily take other people's opinions and fight for them," Berdnikoff said.
Â
One universal highlight of the trip was meeting Joe D'Antonio, the new CAA Commissioner.
Â
Schafer said, "We were able to meet him and he introduced himself to the group and took questions and it was really incredible how personable and down to earth he is. He really cared about every single athlete's question, no matter what it was and I think that really shows the impact a leader can have on the group while also instilling the familial atmosphere."
Â
After each Division-I conference holds a similar Leadership Summit, the NCAA hosts a national SAAC conference. This year, the NCAA SAAC Conference will take place on Jan. 18-21, 2017, in Nashville, Tennessee. The CAA SAAC representative, Derek Trott from the College of William and Mary men's track and field team, will represent the Colonial Athletic Association and speak about some of the concerns of the student-athletes in the CAA.Â
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Players Mentioned
/ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
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