GREENWOOD, Ind. – Ursuline sophomore student-athlete Jes Hicks was designated as the new Great Midwest Athletic Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) President, the second in league history, effective immediately.
Hicks officially follows in the footsteps of Cedarville’s Laura Farleman, who recently attended the NCAA Convention in San Antonio to complete a two-year term in the national leadership position.
Hicks, a dual-sport student-athlete in cross country and track and field for the Arrows, is from Bancroft, Ontario, in Canada. She is currently majoring in education.
“It is a great honor to represent our school and conference on the national level and to be the first one from Ursuline to hold this position,” Hicks said. “I am excited to bring new ideas and work with the rest of (G-MAC) SAAC to help benefit all Division II student-athletes.”
The G-MAC SAAC contributes to a number of NCAA initiatives, including raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the conference-driven Athletes Collection Toiletries in Service (A.C.T.S.) initiative.
The fall G-MAC SAAC meeting was held in Cincinnati and another meeting will be conducted this spring. All conference member institutions were represented with student-athletes from various sports.
“We look forward to Jes moving into the role of G-MAC representative to the National SAAC,” said G-MAC Commissioner Tom Daeger. “I am confident she will represent Ursuline and the G-MAC well at the national level. Additionally, her leadership in the G-MAC SAAC over the next three years will be important for the continued growth of the organization. It is a tremendous opportunity for Jes and I anticipate she will bring a fresh perspective to the conference and national committees.”
“The G-MAC is tremendously grateful to outgoing representative Laura Farleman who, as the first-ever National SAAC representative for the G-MAC, fully embraced the challenge and helped provide the conference an identity with the national organization,” added Daeger. “She was instrumental in the successful growth of the G-MAC SAAC and has established a strong foundation as Jess continues the efforts forward.”
The role of the national SAAC representative is to attend and be an active participant at all institutional and conference SAAC meetings, have an open communication line with the conference commissioner, and work as a liaison between the conference and the NCAA. The representative should be aware of issues and updates from both the conference and the NCAA, which affect all institutions, conferences and student-athletes.
National representatives are responsible for gathering feedback and reporting on behalf of their conference, as well as relaying important events, hot topics and educational information to both the campus and conference levels. In addition to relaying information across campuses and conferences, the committee speaks on behalf of the entire Division II student-athlete body throughout the NCAA governance structure.