2/5/2010
Written By: Larry Happel, Central College Sports Information Director
Category: Collegiate Corner  

PELLA - Central College will have nine participants in the Iowa Conference Student-Athlete Leadership Conference in Cedar Rapids this weekend.
           

Assistant track and field coach Bryan George will take eight student-athletes to the gathering to participate in discussions on leadership, diversity, sportsmanship and the integration of the athletic/academic experience.
           

Central’s participants are freshman Shelby Austin (Wichita, Kan., Goddard HS) of the women’s soccer team, sophomore Sara Davis (Melbourne, West Marshall HS) of the women’s cross country  and women’s track and field teams, junior Cody Jandik (Cedar Rapids, Cedar Valley Christian HS) of the men’s soccer team, senior Nick Johnson (San Antonio, Texas, James Madison HS) of the wrestling team, freshman Ben Lechtenberg (Manchester, West Delaware HS) of the football team, senior Michelle Ripperger (Urbandale) of the volleyball team,  sophomore Heidi Sartorius (Cedar Falls) of the women’s cross country team and senior Jessi Steward (Cedar Falls) of the women’s soccer team.
           

Some 65 male and female student-athletes from the nine league schools are expected to participate in the conference which begins Friday evening and concludes Sunday.
           

“I have had the honor of attending national student-athlete leadership events,” league commissioner Chuck Yrigoyen said. “They can be transformative times and I am hoping for the same result this weekend. Our student-athletes deserve high-quality programming and we are thankful to the NCAA for providing grant money that will fund this event.”
           

An NCAA-administered assessment that offers insights on an individual’s unique behavioral styles and their effect on how the individual communicates will be led Friday evening by Sarah MacInnis, assistant director of educational affairs with the NCAA. MacInnis will also lead a Sunday seminar on peer motivation.
           

A talk on diversity will be presented Saturday morning by Dr. Bernard Franklin, the NCAA’s executive vice president for membership and student-athlete affairs and a Simpson College graduate. Dr. Robert Malekoff, an assistant professor at Division III Guilford College (N.C.), will make a presentation on the “College Sports Project.” The project seeks to enhance ties between college athletics and educational values.
           

Motivational speaker Joe Tye of Solon, promoted as “America’s Values Coach,” will speak in the afternoon. He authored the book “Your Dreams are too Small.”
           

A video conference will be staged with Amy Chen of Division III Newbury College (Mass.), a member of the NCAA National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
           

There will also be a session on promoting sportsmanship and a question and answer period with Yrigoyen and league director of information Josh Schroeder.
           

Central has a long tradition of playing a leadership role with the National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Former Iowa Conference football MVP running back Rich Kacmarynski, who served as Central’s head football coach from 1997-2003 and is now head coach at Pella Christian High School, was a member of the first-ever NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee when it was launched in 1991. He served a pair of two-year terms from 1991-95 and in 1994 was elected the committee chair. The committee worked closely during those years with Marjorie Giles, who was a leader in Central’s student life office and was a member of the NCAA Council. Giles later became the first female president of the Iowa Conference.