ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2009 NCAA Student-Athlete Development Conference was held May 24 – 27 at the Walt Disney World Coronado Resort. Junior Liz Zimmer (softball) and sophomore King Saah (men’s soccer) attended the conference as representatives from Cabrini. Below is a reflection from Liz on her experience at the four-day event.
"The NCAA Leadership Conference at Disney was the best four days, but it was done without any amusement parks or people dressed in costumes. Rather, it was based on friendship and self-discovery in conference and meeting rooms. There was non-stop energy the entire trip.
Once we landed on Sunday and got settled at the hotel, we registered, checked in and received some nice gear. We had lunch where people were able to meet each other – there were over 600 student athletes in attendance for the conference. The break-out sessions with our designated teams – I was on the black team – began immediately. In our team break-outs, we learned about ourselves and each other. Day one concluded around 9:30 p.m. and just about everyone at the conference headed the pool to wrap up the night.
We all had to plan to be awake pretty early on Monday because of the full day and the size of the hotel – walking to room-to-room and each meeting could take awhile. On Monday, we learned a lot about energy management, and how you focus your energy on the things you control – not the things that are out of your control. Through group exercises, this could help us become not only better athletes, but also better leaders.
Personal branding was another informational session on Monday. The session was very informative and addressed a lot about what your image says to others. During lunch, we had our DIII Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) meeting, which allowed us to voice our opinions to the national SAAC board.
Since Monday’s activities and exercises ended around 6 p.m., we had some free time to enjoy the parks – the NCAA gave each student-athlete a gift card for dinner. A group of us headed to downtown Disney for dinner, which gave everyone a chance to learn more about one another.
Tuesday was the first time we got to be outside during the day and we headed over to the Wide World of Sports. Through team-building exercises, each color created an obstacle course that was later combined into one. This really opened my eyes to see how everyone at the conference is a leader – everyone was stepping up and taking charge.
After lunch and a day packed with presentations and meetings, we had a dinner/dance, which was a great time to see everyone dressed up and having a great time. The NCAA showed public service announcements and videos that were made during the conference – it didn’t feel like anyone wanted to leave.
On Wednesday, we were running on just about little to no sleep, but everyone was up early to gather luggage and check-out. There was a very moving presentation made by Joe Ehramann about a student-athlete’s chance to ignite change and gender roles that influence people negatively. Our last team color break-out session was bitter-sweet because everyone influenced each other so much.
Everyone walked away with a new group of almost 600 friends. The facilitators and administrators involved were incredible and really allowed us to learn from one another. One of the presenters ended a session with this quote – which I’m sure everyone will remember the trip b – 'winners practice until they get it right, but champions practice until they can’t get it wrong.' "