With One Accord
Lauren Packer Webster, Director of Athletics & Recreation
Greetings Diplomats –
This is the tenth installment of a monthly update where I will provide direct reflections and information on issues facing our student-athletes. The title is a line from the F&M alma mater.
The goal of this piece is not to review specific game results, but to present an insider’s view of current national trends, on-campus happenings and what we can look forward to next.
What's Trending
NACDA Convention
The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and affiliate groups recently held its annual conference featuring over a week’s worth of educational programming across a membership of more than 22,000 individuals and 2,200 organizations at the two- and four-year college levels.
Of the many sessions I attended learning about name, image and likeness; facility planning and development; naming rights and corporate sponsorships, etc., nothing was more impactful than when a Division III director of athletics acknowledged in a mental healthcare presentation that he planned to place access to mental health resources above non-conference games as a department priority!
The amount of exhaustion, anxiety and achievement demands felt by our student-athletes are very real. We need to recognize that none of us have ever had the same lived experiences as our student-athletes, and this is a time to listen to their needs without judgment.
We’ve provided the HeadSpace app to all our student-athletes the last two years, and this past year implemented a feedback system so we can better meet the needs of our more than 600 student-athletes. We are currently exploring GamePlan and its wide-range of online educational modules to assist with everything from nutrition to social justice and of course, mental health.
On Campus
2022-23 Planning
We continue planning for the 2022-23 academic year. Rising gas and food costs, as well as disrupted supply chains, are at the forefront of minds as we revise budgets.
F&M is fortunate to be centrally located in the Centennial Conference, but if we want to increase our chances of an NCAA playoff berth through an at-large bid we must improve our strength of schedule and travel to top-ranked competition, which drives up operating costs quickly in each sport.
What's Next
Back At It!
It’s hard to believe but in just over a month we will be back at it again! Early August welcomes football to preseason camp first, followed by the remainder of our fall teams in mid-August.
Summer never seems long enough to recover from the grueling demands of the 24-7 work we put in during the academic year. However, with the success of our teams and the experience we deliver, it’s very rewarding to be a part of Diplomat tradition of excellence.