Oct. 17, 2007

Dan VeNard is a senior defenseman for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish hockey team. This season he serves as one of the team's alternate captains. He is also president of Notre Dame's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). In his own words, read about VeNard's experience in "Something Bigger Than Myself."

Something Bigger Than Myself
By Dan VeNard

The Notre Dame Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) plays an important role at the University as the organization acts as a buffer between the student-athletes and the athletic department's administration. Every athletic team at Notre Dame has a representative on the committee.

Some of the things that we are involved with include helping solve problems that occur with facilities, help with problems within teams and set up community service events. We do student welfare type programs for the student-athletes, help with career opportunities and religious and academic programs. We are a mentor group for all of the school's student-athletes.

I got involved with SAAC just by luck more than anything. Two years ago, one of our players, Chris Trick, was hockey's representative to the group. They were having a night where prospective members could come to a meeting and see what the group does. Chris asked me if I wanted to go and at least I could get a free dinner out of it so I went and saw how things worked.

In the middle of March of 2006, when our season ended, Chris signed with a team in the East Coast League to finish out the season. The hockey team then needed a representative to take his place on SAAC to finish out the year and since I was the only one to have been to a meeting, by default, I took over his spot.

That was a year and a half ago and now I've become the president of the organization. Last spring, they sent out an email asking if returning members were interested in one of the positions of president, vice-president, etc. Since I've been involved in the organization, not many male athletes have been in one of the top positions so I thought it might be a good idea to have a male's perspective on the leadership board and I was on the ballot for president.

The vote was done last spring at one of the final meetings with no campaigning. They just listed the events and programs that you had worked on in the past and since hockey has been very involved in community service, I had a lot of things listed and I guess that got me enough votes to get elected.

My main job as president is to run the meetings, to keep them moving smoothly. I try to push students to talk and open the discussion. I think I try to create an environment where people can open up and share their opinions on certain topics. I think that the give-and-take of this group is important in trying to come up with solutions or ideas to help improve things.

My first meeting was very nerve-racking. The agenda was big, since we hadn't met since the end of the previous school year. There was a lot to go over and I wanted to speak and get people comfortable, so I told a few jokes to try and lighten things up to get everyone involved.

As part of my duties, I am the groups' liaison to the Career Center on campus. I deal with their student advisory board and go to meetings and evaluate the programs that they have and how they can better suit the student-athletes. We are looking to get a satellite office of the Career Center in the Joyce Center. As student-athletes, we are in this building a good portion of the week, so I think it would be great to be able to stop in and ask questions or check on prospective opportunities on the way to practice. It would be more convenient for people.

One of the things that impresses me about SAAC is how we are received by the administration. They really understand the type of people that they have brought in as student-athletes - bright, driven kids. Just because we are college students doesn't mean that we don't deserve to be respected and have our opinions respected. When we raise a general concern, they treat us like adults and equals and they respond to the problem that we are addressing.

Last year there was an issue with the swimming pool. There was a problem with the way the chlorine was being filtered and some of the swimmers were getting sick. We brought the problem to the administration and our athletics director, Dr. Kevin White, took the concern seriously and they went to work to fix it. The following summer, they re-tiled the pool, improved ventilation and found better ways to circulate the chlorine. It was great that we were able to express what we saw as a problem and they addressed it. So, we do have some say in how things are run in the athletic department.

Being involved with SAAC the last couple years has helped me in building relationships, taught me how to clearly communicate certain ideas while working on ways to work out problems and come up with solutions. Learning how to work with upper-level administration is important in any job.

It has also opened up the world of volunteer service that has been fantastic for me. Working with kids in the Boys and Girls Clubs and in youth hockey has been a lot of fun. It's great to be able to give something back and has enhanced my life without question.

I've also learned how to balance my time among school, hockey, community service and studying for the LSAT's. I've also been working on career things, researching companies, preparing for interviews. It seems like I'm doing five jobs, but you just balance things and give 100 percent on what you are working on at the time. Most of all, you have to enjoy what you are doing.

There isn't much time to sleep and our 6:00 a.m. lifts are killing me, but most of all I am getting the most out of my time at Notre Dame.

I'm looking forward to the season ahead. Being selected as one of the team's captains was a great honor for me. Things haven't always gone as planned for me due to injuries and developing as a player, but being named a captain of a team at Notre Dame is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.