Life as a Student Athlete at MAC

Good to go.

Yeah, I can hear you guys can hear me.

Yes.

Yeah.

We did it.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, I got you Andy.

Any better?

Yeah.

OK.

Right, welcome till 11:00 o'clock. Good morning everyone, uhm?

We're going to go ahead and get started. I'm sure will have a few more logging in as we go here, but will kick things off and thank you for joining us in the 4th part in our virtual information webinar series. Life is a student athlete. It not all wishes college. I'll keep in mind this is the 4th part so you can view our previous recordings on our virtual admissions hub located located on our website. In case you missed any of them as you know it was unfortunate, we did have to cancel accepted student day due to obvious reasons.

Uhm, but it did have to be done for the safety of everyone. A Marco with these webinars is to answer questions you may have an also reduce some of that anxiety you may have was starting that next chapter in your life.

My name is Andy Clausen. I service a directora freshman admissions, an international student coordinator. I'm also an adjunct professor within our Sports Management Specialization that's been a lot of fun interacting with the students on the classroom side of things at Bennett Mac for over 15 years of work not only in the admissions office, but also had a fantastic, fantastic opportunity to coach two different athletic programs. One is the assistant coach to coach Kevin Khan, who you're about to meet if you don't already know.

And also was the head coach of our women's bowling program in its early years of getting started.

Before I let coach Kevin Chi Minh coaching and yellow Leary introduced themselves, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and continue to be through these tough times. Go ahead, coach con.

Which coach O'Leary?

Hey everyone, I'm Daniela Lyrium, the head women's lacrosse coach Earth amount. I'm also the senior woman administrator. I've been as amount for just about two years now, but I've been coaching for total about eight years, so happy to be here. See everyone participating today.

Thank you, coach. Uhm, you know, feel free, you know to our participants you can, uh, throw in some questions on your sidebar. There were happy to answer on through out before I get into those questions, we first coach com coach. O'Leary had some big news. Just announced in the Allegany Mount Collegiate Conference this week.

Coach can't, can you explain more to our listeners?

Definitely no, that's a That's a big deal and not really goes to show what we've done with the athletic programs on campus. Student athletes that our coaches like to recruit. Coach O'Leary had believe your team they were named one of the top top ones, right?

Yeah, we received the UM individual or team P Performer Award. Um, just shows like the emphasis we put on academics here at the mouth and how important they are. And you know, it's great to receive that award and have the lays on the team get that recognition for all the hard work they're doing in the classroom.

Absolutely, that's exciting that that's really a big award for the entire athletic Department to receive along with the individual teams that received as well. But really Springs true there the mounting way and and trying to do things the right way. As I know, coach common others always try to preach when we start talking. We talked a little bit briefly about the academic side, but.

You know what? What's the competition level like it man? Aloe wishes college.

No, absolutely in and you talk about the conference, coach Kime, Coach O'Leary. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about the conference who all we compete against? And some of those road matches that we get to travel to?

Yeah, I C UM, we've got about 3 schools in Buffalo that we play against. Uhm, right now, hilbert madian do youville uhm and then we play Penn State Baron and Penn State Altoona. So it's nice that Altoona is right down the road, so that's kind of our arrival in the conference. And then we have Larouche outside of Pitts Burg and pick greens burg outside of Pittsburgh and then Pitt Bradford. So that's in the conference. And then.

Uhm, you know bowling kind of competes at a different level and then lacrosse also competes in a completely different conference with everyone else, so um.

Sure, absolutely, and there's some ancillary numbers. Two depending on the sport, but it really is a quite expensive conference and seems to continue to grow each and every year.

Coach can do you have anything to add to that?

What do you see coach? Kind of some of the benefits of competing in the Allegheny Mountain Collegian Conference.

And having that that larger conference? I mean, that's gotta help on the national level 2 when you, when a conference championship, correct?

Absolutely, that's great. You know we talked earlier about Division Three level. You know a lot of student athletes out there, potential recruits, you know they're looking for scholarships to do. We offer athletic scholarships that not all the wishes college?

No, absolutely in in the Admissions Office of financial aid office we try to work one on one with each each student regardless if you're recruited athlete or not. Trying to help you out and make a mile wishes College as affordable as possible.

Um?

Coach O'Leary you mentioned earlier about something sports that we offered. Do you mind running through them? I mean, how many sports are offered on campus and what are they?

So it's probably the biggest test of the week here for me, Andy. I'll see if I can remember them all up on the men's side, we have obviously a baseball, basketball, omm soccer, tennis, a cross country, UM, an adding Mens volleyball, correct? Coach kind.

Yes, that that is correct.

OK, on the women's side, women, soccer, tennis, cross-country basketball, volleyball up across obviously, and bowling. did I forget one?

I think we gotta mall.

Think we gotta mall?

Yeah, nice job coach.

So when we think about everything, oh, we miss golf. I'm sorry.

Golf, Yeah.

Yep, Mens and women's golf uhm.

So we know that you know making that step from high school to college is obviously a big jump for many. Uhm, maybe coach. Com you can elaborate a little bit. You know how? How long do the seasons last? What's the commitment level that you're coaching staff is looking for out of these athletes?

Started out.

At all.

Yeah, you know, uhm, I tell you know our recruits that, um, the big change probably is the commitment level. And there's workouts in the offseason. There's fund raising in the offseason. There's community service, which is huge at the Mount. Um, so in high school, sometimes you know if your spring athlete your March to May maybe, whereas in college you really are committed to your team in your program from.

You know the minute that you step on campus to hopefully well after you graduate. So um, the commitment level is definitely different, but as far as you know how often you practice, it's probably the same as most high school programs. But yeah, coach kind said you do play a little bit more games. You travel a little bit more, but the benefit of that is that you do make some great friendships during that time, so.

Definitely thank you coach. Uhm, you know you mentioned you both mentioned about the hard work and the commitment level. You know there's got to be some benefits to write to being a student Athlete of metal wishes, College coach con.

Yeah, for sure any.

Yeah, look at past. The fact that you know the student athletes to help them out with their academic schedules. They get priority scheduling within the season 2, so that's certainly a nice benefit. So then maybe they can work around the practice schedule the game schedules with their class schedule, so they can try and balance everything as well as they can.

Yeah, absolutely, and that kind of leads us in. There was a question that just came in, you know, committed to play softball. It might also wishes. I'm also majoring in pre physical therapy.

Just nervous about how to deal with the course load and sports. Do you have any suggestions?

And I know that you just kind of answered some of those do.

Yeah, for anyone else out there worrying about it. I mean you can kind of tell our track record really speak for itself again, like we talked about in the opening about, you know the peak performance award within the conference and the commitment level in the system that I think is in place over the whole entire athletic Department. You know, in each coach kind of lives by to work with their students, soon athletes to.

Get their degree, get out on time. Uhm, and also have a successful plane karere coach. O'Leary, do you want to add to that at all?

I would just say you know keep open communication with your coach too. If you're struggling, you know. Don't be afraid to speak up and and ask for help. If you've got an exam coming up or you need extra time to study, you know, speak up before it's too late. You know if you are struggling in a class, we're going to know about it and the support systems are there for you to be successful academically.

But at the same time, like it's up to you to, um, you know, be open with communication in your coach and have a good plan for your academic success as well.

Started out very well put Cocho area mean.

You know the the campus community is there, you know, being a student athlete amount although wishes College as compared to maybe a more traditional student not playing a sport, you just have a few extra set of eyes on you to kind of take care of you and make sure that you're as successful as you can be and we take a lot of pride in that at the institution.

Um?

You know another question that just came in.

Uh, how successful were the teams that mantle wishes College Kevin would? Would you like to kind of take that?

Absolutely in coach com you talked about facilities a little bit.

You wanna go a little more in-depth? I mean the the college landscapes is changed quite a bit over the last five years or so, it continues to expand a little bit more.

Yeah, I just shared my screen with with our viewers here so they can kind of check out. This is our virtual campus map that we have on campus. If you haven't been to campus or had an opportunity to check it out, check out this map. This is about as real as we can get for computer generated map campus, but then you'll notice when you click on some of the facilities you're going to be like photos. Just 360 tours.

Kinda scan through and really a kid could feel, especially with our given situation not being able to get to campus. This is a great way to a kind of explore or the athletic facilities we have along with the rest of campus, academic buildings and other facilities that we have really, really nice way to show campus. So again, don't don't be afraid to check that out.

Coach O'Leary um anything that we have missed a coach can't miss with facilities that you want to highlight, you have one of the newest programs on campus will. Obviously that's going to continue to expand. You have the new turf field in place that you're sharing with soccer, but you know anything else you'd like to add to that.

As a coach like I enjoy that our facility times balanced and you know when we have had inclement weather and we've had to go into the gym and uhm you know baseball's got practice softballs got practice will work together to make sure that you know the practice times are shared and were getting good quality practice in you know I also have to give shout out to coach golly or facilities manager does an awesome job of making sure facilities are clean and you know when we have had inclement weather and we've got to clean the turf.

He's out there plowing for us and you know our facilities look nice because they're well taken care of, not just by our coaching staff but by our student athletes as well.

Definitely, definitely now. I mean the facilities are Tasha beautiful.

Um?

You know, as we start to kind of wind things down here, I'll open it up to both of you and I'll start with coach kind.

Any anything, maybe that wasn't covered today that you were hoping to address to our future mounties. Uhm, you know. As they start thinking about or finalizing college options.

Roughly coach O'Leary.

I would say you know we've got a great community at the mountain. That's a great support system to, you know, we had a question about academics and making it balance. And you know there is a little bit of a safety net at the Mount and you're not going to be. You're not going to be allowed to struggle in in class. You know you're going to graduate with a great degree. You're going to be able to get a job at Akarere after you know three or four years at the Mount. Be able to go to grad school, Med school, you know whatever your next step is.

Academically, it's a great place and then athletically like you can balance everything you can have. You know his coach said a great opportunity to compete and play. Uhm, so you know being a D3 I was a former D3 student athlete. Uhm, you know. And this is a Mount took place to take the next step in your athletic karere.

No, I couldn't agree more. I mean, it is a special place. Like I said earlier, I've been here for 15 years and you know, fallen in love with the place and enjoy my time. No matter what. Had I'm wearing that day. It's it's a special place and we hope that others can see that and feel that when they do come to campus and visit.

Um?

Yeah, I guess the last thing moving moving forward here coach con. Uhm I got an email from marketing yesterday. Understand the coaching staff is about to release some individual videos. Can you tell everyone know a little bit more about that and what to expect from these 'cause I think they're coming out soon.

Absolutely I got to see him there. There very well done and a coaches are always working. Um, so you know, if you have a question as a perspective, student, athlete, or even a current recruit for one of the teams, don't hesitate to reach out there. A great resource.

I'm gonna write things off for today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you coach con coach O'Leary for your expertise. Um, please know you can always reach out to any of us at the institution, not just the coaches, but you know that includes financial aid, academic advising, faculty staff, the business office, you name it, we're all here. We're working, even though we're all in different places, we're all doing what we can to serve each one of you throughout these crazy times. Please, again, coach can't just mentioned. Check out our virtual admissions hub for next steps.

Um and again, please don't hesitate to reach out, stay smart, be safe, and you know we'll get through all this together. Thank you everyone.

Thanks Andy.