The SUNY Oneonta athletics department is set to celebrate NCAA Division III week beginning Monday, Apr. 13^th and continuing through Sunday, Apr. 19^th.  The annual event, which began in 2010, is a division-wide initiative to observe and celebrate the impact athletics and student athletes have on their campuses and in the surrounding community.
 
"NCAA Division III week is a wonderful time to recognize the hard work and dedication our athletes exhibit throughout the year," said SAAC President Matthew Palmer.  "Additionally, it is a time to recognize the athletic department on Oneonta's campus and the many coaches that encourage our students to be great in and out of the playing arena. Take time this week to celebrate your teammates, old and new, remind a coach that you appreciate them, or reach out to a faculty member that has helped you along the way."
 
The athletics department will be involved in various activities that will celebrate community service, academic accomplishments while participating in the annual "Yards for Yeardley" event.  The Student Athlete Advisory Council has taken the lead to make the most of the week amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"Playing Division III sports means so much more than just being an athlete," said Student Athlete Affairs Coordinator Sara Curran-Headley.  "Division III week is a great time to celebrate everything that makes a Division III athlete special. Even though we may be missing our sports, we have a lot of other things going on!!"
 
Curran-Headley continued, "Throughout the year we offer programming covering a wide array of topics including Academic and career mentoring, Nutrition and Mental wellness in addition to all the service we are engaged in the local community."
 
Tuesday, Apr. 14^th – Yards for Yeardley
2020 will mark the fourth year that Oneonta is participating in "Yards for Yeardley", which is a national event supporting the One Love Foundation.  The foundation was created after the passing of Yeardley Love, a senior attending the University of Virginia and a player on its Women's Lacrosse Team. Yeardley Love was the victim of sexual assault being beaten to death by an ex-boyfriend in May 2010. One of the goals of the One Love Foundation is to honor Yeardley by bringing an end to relationship violence by educating, empowering and call upon campus communities to join the Movement for Change and end this type of senseless brutality. According to its website, The One Love Foundation is a national leader in educating young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships and in galvanizing young people across the country to be Leaders of Change.
 
Oneonta's event will involve all its athletics teams, club sports groups faculty and staff in challenging each group and individual to walk or participate in some sort of physical activity that can be measured in yards.  The yards are then compiled with the hopes of surpassing last year's total of three-million yards as a campus.
 
"The Yards for Yeardley event will be held online this year," said Palmer.  "We are going to remain together while separate and continue to raise awareness for relationship violence."  Palmer invites anyone who would like to participate to run or exercise and record the approximate amount of yards they traveled. If you are a member of a campus organization that has agreed to participate, send your yards to your designated team leader. If you are not a member of an organization, direct message the yards you ran to OneontaSAAC on Instagram, or Email me, Matt Palmer at Palmma57@oneonta.edu.
 
On average 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Due to the isolation put on by COVID-19, healthy relationships have never been more important. "Though we may be separate, we can come together as a community to honor Yeardley Love, and help the OneLove foundation reach its goal of 1 billion yards," concluded Palmer.
 
The inaugural event was held in 2017 as a SUNYAC conference initiative to walk "10 million Yards for Yeardley".  The event was so successful with the 10 schools surpassing the mark by a wide margin that SUNY itself took notice.
 
In 2018, SUNY added to the event by making it a system-wide initiative calling it "Around the World for Yeardley".  Once again, the event was a success with the entire system surpassing its goal.
 
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and this event helps support the efforts of all movements and organizations that are continuing the fight against relationship violence.  One of the movements is "It's on Us".
 
In 2015, then SUNY Oneonta students, Brynn Sussman and Todd Ferguson, created a short video to support the "It's On Us" movement. Their video won the National SAAC Diversity Spotlight Award and the "Video of the Year" award presented by NCAA's National SAAC.
 
The "It's on Us" Movement encourages students:

• To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault
• To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur
• To intervene in situations in which sexual assault may occur
• To create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported

 
Our campus community has and will continue to come together each year to make sure Yeardley Love will always be remembered and her story never forgotten.  To learn more about the One Love Foundation, visit https://www.joinonelove.org/
 
To take the pledge, please visit itsonus.org
 
Chi Alpha Sigma Induction
SUNY Oneonta will be adding 33 students and one faculty member to Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society.  The full announcement of those inducted will be made in the coming weeks.  This year's Honorary Inductee is Dr. Donna Vogler, Professor of Biology.
 
Community Service
SAAC was supposed to be involved in the annual CANstruction event that was to be held at the Southside Mall on Sunday, Apr. 19^th but was canceled.  Instead, the money that they raised for the purchase of canned goods that would eventually end up at local food pantries, will be donated to a local restaurant Wise Guys and the campus food service provider Sodexo.  Wise Guys will use the donated money to provide lunch for the AO Fox Hospital ER workers.  The remainder of the money raised (about $600) will help support a campus initiative for Sodexo workers that were laid off in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Twelve members of the men's and women's swimming & diving team will be beginning their involvement with becoming Pen Pals for residents of two of the senior nursing facilities in Oneonta.  The team members will write letters and will be matched with senior residents of AO Fox Nursing Home and Chestnut Park Rehab and Nursing Center based on mutual interests.
 
Athletic Excellence
Despite not being on campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that hasn't stopped the athletics department from continuing to engage with the campus community.  The department developed a fitness initiative that runs every Friday for the final eight weeks of the semester.
 
The initiative is called the Word of the Week Fitness Challenge and involved members of the department in developing something that would help keep the campus engaged and fit.  Each Friday, a new word is unveiled where the letters of the words correspond to an exercise that can be performed in the confines of someone's home, garage or back yard.  The exercises were performed by baseball coach/strength & conditioning coach Ben Grimm.
 
For more information or if you would like to participate, we invite you to visit: https://www.oneontaathletics.com/FitnessChallenge
 
WHAT IS DIVISION III WEEK?
Division III Week is a positive opportunity for all individuals associated with a Division III institution to observe and celebrate the impact athletics and student-athletes have on campus and in the surrounding community.  During the week, every Division III school and conference office is encouraged to conduct
an outreach activity that falls into one of three categories: academic accomplishment; athletic experience; or leadership/community service/campus involvement. Division III Week is a strategic initiative that achieves its desired impact from a unity of effort. It harnesses everyone working toward the same goal at the same time to build a greater awareness and understanding of Division III athletics.
 
THE THREE D'S OF DIVISION III
DISCOVER: Division III student-athletes are encouraged to pursue their interests and passions beyond the classroom and field of play…to discover themselves.
 
DEVELOP: Division III institutions provide an environment that encourages student-athletes to develop into well-rounded adults. Small class sizes, the ability to participate in more than one sport, and an emphasis on participating activities outside of the classroom are all hallmarks of the Division III experience.
 
DEDICATE: Division III institutions expect student-athletes to dedicate themselves to achieving their potential. Student-athletes must manage their busy schedules, keep up with class work and face the same challenges as the rest of the student-body.