GNAC’s Professional Development Seminar is a Success

By: Kisha Tapangan

Communications & Public Relations Specialist

Every two years, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference holds a unique Professional Development Seminar to focus on further understanding a topic that greatly affects all those involved with collegiate athletics. 

The highly-anticipated seminar was held at the Doubletree Suites in Boston, Massachusetts from August 11-12 with a GNAC cookout to welcome all attendees.  For the 4th edition, the GNAC presented a Student Athlete Well-Being program focused on Mental Health.  The PDS is also a great opportunity for companies, sports vendors and sport officiating bureaus to network and foster relationships with all of the GNAC schools.

Representatives from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) were also present at the Professional Development Seminar.  Latrice S. Sales, the Assistant Director of Health and Safety for the NCAA was in attendance to discuss the issues at a national level.  Ms. Sales also provided manuals for coaches and professionals to assist in managing student-athletes’ mental health issues to be included in the GNAC briefcases given to all attendees. Greg Johnson, the Associate Director NCAA Champion magazine, was also in attendance. Mr. Johnson will be writing an article regarding the ground-breaking seminar for the NCAA News. With a showing of over 200 individuals that are, in some shape or form affiliated with college athletics, the 2010 Professional Development Seminar was in full force.

With the support of local vendors and corporate partners, the GNAC PDS was full of brand new products and up to date information on things that could be highly useful for coaches and administrators.  Attendees were also given the opportunity to take photos next to the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics’ respective championship trophies.

A major highlight of the Professional Development Seminar was the keynote speech given by Dr. Stephen Durant Ed.D.  Dr. Durant is the Co-Director of the Sport Psychology program and clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Also serving as an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Durant is the chief consultant for the MGH medical team that serves the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins.

When asked as to what his goal was for the keynote speech, Dr. Durant explained,

“I’m not here to burden the coaches but just to give them tools to use to further build emotional and mental health among their students-athletes.”  Dr. Durant continued that an important thing that coaches must help their athletes with is to, “Help them [student-athletes] recapture the feeling when they embrace the enjoyment of the sport.”

Dr. Durant was also a part of the panel put together to answer any questions seminar attendees may have in regards to student-athlete mental health.  Ken Duckworth, M.D.,medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Kelly A. Moran, Director of Counseling at Mt. Ida College and  Samantha Sandland, a former student-athlete who was diagnosed with bipolar/OCD  during her collegiate career.  The student-athlete graciously joined the panel to share her story and experiences in hopes of providing aid to students and coaches.  The three additional panelists joined Dr. Durant on the highly informative and educational panel, who answered questions from the audience consisting of athletic administration, staff members as well as coaches. 

In addition to the panel discussion, the GNAC not only celebrated their 15th anniversary but also welcomed the newest conference member: Anna Maria College from Paxton, Massachusetts.

Along with athletic director meetings and preseason meetings for all sports teams, the PDS was also the time when the GNAC honored the executive, athletic trainer and sports information director of the year.

The 2010 award recipients were Jim Nelson of Suffolk University for being the Executive the Year.  Dan Booth of Johnson & Wales University was honored as the Sports Information Director of the Year and Ron Laham of Emmanuel College was named athletic trainer of the year.

The awards for woman of the year, male sportsman of the year and the sportsmanship award were also handed out during the seminar.

Courtney Wallace of Pine Manor has been named the GNAC Woman of the Year and has automatically been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.  Wallace was a two-year captain and starting catcher for the softball team.  In addition to showing strong leadership, Wallace was also the valedictorian of Pine Manor’s class of 2010.

Chris Petzy Jr. from Saint Joesph's College of Maine was honored as the 2010 Male Sportsman of the Year for the GNAC.  Petzy Jr. maintained an impressive 3.9 GPA and has also been elected as team captain by his teammates for 2010-2011 basketball season.

Kira Feeter, a two sport student from Mount Ida has excelled in both volleyball and women’s lacrosse.  Feeter’s focus on playing with the highest level of integrity for both sports, she has been honored as the Sportsman of the Year.

Overall, the goal of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference’s Professional Development Seminar on Student Athlete Well-Being with a focus on Mental Health to further educate proved to be a great success.  With several attendees leaving with a new found understanding of mental health, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference has deemed the 2010-2011 PDS one of the conference’s most successful events.