GNAC Announces 2020-21 SAAC Commissioner's Council

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Seven student-athletes set
to help lead GNAC SAAC efforts

WINTHROP, Mass. – The Great Northeast Athletic Conference is excited to unveil its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Commissioner's Council for the 2020-21 academic year, as announced by GNAC Commissioner Joe Walsh on Thursday. 

The support and formal creation of a revamped league-wide GNAC SAAC initiative came in April 2018 as a strategic recommendation from the Conference Self-Study Guide (CSSG) Committee and GNAC Presidents' Council.

The SAAC Commissioner's Council will work directly with GNAC Assistant to the Commissioner Julio Barroso, with the strategic goal of emphasizing the student-athletic experience, as well as the key focus of student-athlete mental health in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The group is comprised of Anna Maria College men's soccer sophomore Benedetto Iaboni (Whitby, Ontario); Dean College field hockey/softball sophomore Zoe Coleman (Warwick, R.I.); Emmanuel College men's soccer/men's lacrosse senior Morgan Mercier (Lincolnville, Maine), who is also the GNAC's Division III national SAAC representative; Johnson & Wales University (RI) men's basketball sophomore Andre Cotton-Samuel (Long Island, N.Y.); Lasell University women's soccer sophomore Alex Lorenzo (Pawtucket, R.I.); Regis College men's soccer sophomore Santiago Pedraza Novak (Bogota, Colombia); and University of Saint Joseph (CT) women's volleyball senior Aminah Tsonga (Plainville, Conn.).

The Commissioner's Council will work with and help guide the rest of the GNAC SAAC, as each league member has student-athletes serving on the conference-wide committee. 

The group will meet virtually multiple times per month throughout the 2020-21 academic year, and will also work with Ivy Watts, who is Mental Health First Aid Certified. Watts promotes mental wellness and reduces stigma around mental illness by sharing her story, and the SAAC's interactions with Ivy have been focused on her COVID-19 Mental Health Support Modules, which are available to all GNAC student-athletes.

Mercier is the lone returner the Commissioner's Council from the 2019-20 academic year. His appointment to the National SAAC came last October and he is set to serve in that role through this upcoming January, at which point the GNAC will choose a new replacement.

Mercier traveled to the 2020 NCAA Convention in Anaheim, representing the GNAC alongside Colby-Sawyer College's Ben Lewis, JWU's Natalie Rivas and Saint Joseph's College of Maine's Lillian Bisset.

Be sure to tune in each week through the end of September as the GNAC will feature each member of the GNAC SAAC Commissioner's Council!

The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 13 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Founded in 1995, the GNAC annually sponsors and administers 22 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement in an effort to enhance the student-athlete experience. 

– #TheGNAC –