By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- The Northwest Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for 2020-21 includes two members from Willamette University. Next year's NWC SAAC for 2021-22 will also feature two members representing the Bearcats. This year, it's been Mack van der Velde (Sr., D, Voorhout, Neth./Summit HS, Bend, OR) from men's soccer and Avery Mickelsen (Jr./So., Ephrata, WA/Ephrata HS) from women's track and field. In 2021-22, Mickelsen will continue to serve on the NWC SAAC, while Ryan Johns (Fy., OL, Las Vegas, NV/Liberty HS) from football will join the group. All three have, or will hold, leadership positions.
During the current academic year, van der Velde has served as the NWC SAAC President, while Mickelsen has worked as the initiatives coordinator. Mickelsen will be the communications director next year, while Johns will be the initiatives coordinator.
"I am grateful for the commitment and effort Mack van der Velde and Avery Mickelsen have given the NWC SAAC this year," Associate AD/Senior Woman Administrator Leslie Shevlin said. "They have both represented Willamette University Athletics well. Avery has really stepped up and does a wonderful job bringing NWC topics and ideas to our Willamette SAAC meetings. Mack has worked with NWC Assistant Commissioner Rosie Phillips, to bring diversity and inclusion issues to the forefront of what they are doing. He has really made a major and lasting impact on the NWC SAAC.
"I am also super excited that Avery will return to the Executive Team next year," Shevlin continued. "Ryan Johns will join her as the initiatives coordinator. Ryan is very passionate about leadership and is eager to make an impact."
The NWC SAAC has been active under van der Velde's leadership this year despite the limitations created by COVID-19 and various protocols.
"I believe our team's top three new accomplishments would be the open forums, Unity Pledge, and our voter registration initiative," van der Velde commented. "We introduced the open forums for NWC student-athletes to cover and collaborate with student-athletes throughout the conference on pressing matters that impact our student-athletes. The four that we held covered racial/social justice, mental health in student-athletes, Title IX/women in sports, and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community.
"The Unity Pledge is a standard to hold ourselves and fellow NWC student-athletes to be anti-racist and inclusive in every aspect of our lives," van der Velde added. "Finally, the voter registration initiative was a collaboration with the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). We started this to encourage the most underrepresented age range (18-24) in 2016's Presidential Election to get registered. We had over 1,100 responses and student-athletes who registered to vote. Our hope is that these three initiatives can be continued and improved upon by future NWC executive teams."
According to van der Velde, many individuals were involved in the various projects led by the NWC SAAC. He pointed out a few people who were particularly helpful.
"Obviously, none of the things I accomplished this year would have been possible without the tremendous guidance from Phillips and the collaboration from the rest of the 2020-21 NWC Executive Team," van der Velde said.
The chance to serve as the president of NWC SAAC has been very special to van der Velde. It gave him the chance to interact with so many other student-athletes, and to work to make their college experiences better.
"Being president of the NWC SAAC has been such a blessing and I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunity," van der Velde noted. "I think what I have enjoyed the most about being on NWC SAAC is the people I have been able to connect with and seeing a glimpse into their worlds. Whether it was meeting student-athletes from across the country or seeing and hearing the intricacies, difficulties, and relentless work that both Athletic Directors and Commissioners from around the country do for their student-athletes, it really put into perspective all of the people involved in college sports and how much work everyone does for the common love of competition."
It took extra efforts by van der Velde, Mickelsen, and other NWC SAAC Executive team members to successfully coordinate meetings and activities with COVID-19 protocols in place.
"COVID-19 provided both challenges and solutions to the NWC SAAC this past year," van der Velde said. "The first challenge was that we were unable to have our in-person NWC SAAC meetings in person. Normally, these meetings allow for all of the institutions to get together in person and collaborate. Being in person allows for people to build relationships with student-athletes from other schools, which is much more organic than through Zoom, bringing our conference a little closer together.
"Another difficulty was Zoom fatigue," van der Velde continued. "I don't think there is a person who has not suffered from an overwhelming amount of staring at screens and sitting at desks in meetings with little or no in-person interactions. This brought down the level of participation. On the other hand, the online conditions due to COVID-19 created an environment that allowed for more meetings with the NWC Executive Team. I believe that we were able to accomplish more than normal because we had the ability to connect and discuss much more frequently. Obviously, the final and biggest challenge was the lack of competition for student-athletes and how to find ways to support one another mentally."
As his year serving as the president of NWC SAAC nears the finish, van der Velde looks back in a very positive way.
"It might be the nostalgia of being a senior and seeing my last moments of college, but I wouldn't trade being the NWC SAAC President for anything," van der Velde noted. "It was an invaluable moment in my life and I will look back upon it and the people involved with the fondest of memories and take all that I learned into the future with me."
Mickelsen was pleased with the projects she worked on while serving as the initiatives coordinator. She appreciated help and coordination from other NWC SAAC members.
"I think the majority of my top accomplishments were all part of a group effort put forth by the Executive Team," Mickelsen said. "While each of us holds an individual position, we worked really well together at getting things done.
"Some of my favorite projects were the voting initiative we did in cooperation with the SCIAC and the campaign we put together for Diversity and Inclusion Week," Mickelsen added. "My favorite project has been working on and leading open forums on racial and social justice and mental health. We have a few more forums planned for later this semester as well. It has given our conference a great chance to collaborate between institutions on these important topics and given me the chance to learn from my peers.
"I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside other student-athletes from across the conference on the Executive Team," Mickelsen noted. "Also, through several of the open forums we've held this year, I've been able to meet and learn from so many different student-athletes. Too often as athletes, we can get caught up in the competition and the rivalry, and forget that each of us has much more in common than we think. It's been a pleasure to work with people from all different sports and institutions. We each bring a unique perspective to the conversation and that has helped us accomplish so many things this year."
As Mickelsen prepares to become the communications director in 2021-22, she is focusing on a list of goals for the organization as it relates to communicating with student-athletes and distributing information through social media.
"My goals for this upcoming year are to create a more robust and substantial social media presence for NWC SAAC, work to promote every institution's SAAC social media pages, and use social media as a way to keep our conference's institutions connected. My top priority, however, is to be a productive and beneficial member of the NWC SAAC Executive Team. Representing the conference and Willamette for another year is not something I take lightly, and I'm looking forward to continuing my contributions on the board for another year."
It will be a new experience for Johns when he joins the NWC SAAC as the initiatives coordinator. He's glad to have a chance to represent Willamette student-athletes within the NWC.
"I am looking forward to serving my school on the NWC SAAC Executive Team. I am a leader and I look forward to sitting on a committee full of experienced leaders who I can learn from," Johns said. "I will have the responsibility of planning the initiatives that the NWC SAAC represents."
John also has thought about his own commitments as a person, student, and athlete at Willamette. He will be entering his sophomore year when the 2020-21 academic year begins.
"As for personal goals, my goal for myself in my college career is to effect lasting change on the community I am a part of," Johns stated. "As a football player, I want to de-stigmatize the stereotype that football players don't become involved in the community when off the field."
It's a positive situation that Willamette has had two members on the NWC SAAC this year and will have two student-athletes on the NWC SAAC again next year. By serving on the conference-wide group at the same time, the Willamette student-athletes can help each other with various NWC projects and can discuss important issues throughout the year.
"I've really enjoyed serving with Mack van der Velde on both the Willamette and NWC SAAC executive teams," Mickelsen commented. "I learned a lot from him about team leadership and am grateful that he was a driving force behind accomplishing many of our goals! I'm looking forward to working with Ryan Johns on the board this upcoming year."
