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"You realize how to communicate things to different people, the way they feel the benefit, expressing the benefits to everybody by the things we do, how it can help everybody - not just for the short term, but for the long term."
--Darryl Richard
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Senior football player Darryl Richard is the president of Georgia Tech's Student-Athlete Advisory Board and has been pivotal in getting more student-athletes involved in SAAB's events. Richard took a few minutes to chat with theACC.com about SAAB's initiatives and his experiences. |
What is the overall goal of Georgia Tech's SAAB?
It is to promote involvement within the community and be student leaders for the rest of the student-athletes here at Georgia Tech.
How is your SAAB set up?
We have a president - I'm president - a vice-president, secretary, treasurer and student advisory members who work specifically with community service so they are basically our community service committee. Then from time to time, we have the opportunity to get some student-athletes on the board as well as regular student-athletes to form special committees to work on certain projects. One of my big things since becoming president has been to try to get as many student-athletes involved with what we are trying to do as a SAAB.
 | | Georgia Tech student-athletes perform community service. |
What are the recurring community service programs that SAAB does?
We actually just had the Special Olympics event that we have been working with for the past couple of years as well as Habitat for Humanity. We do a toy drive every fall. Some of the toys that don't go to Toys for Tots we bring to a foster home called Hillside every Christmas. We have representatives go out to Hillside and have a Christmas party (for them).
Are there certain programs that tend to be the favorite among student-athletes?
I think it is Special Olympics. We have so many different sports represented at that event. You can actually see the benefits of spending your time with people and how much people enjoy spending time with (us the) student-athletes. We really have a good time. I think sometimes we enjoy it more than the Special Olympics athletes do. That's definitely a favorite among student-athletes here at Georgia Tech.
Can you tell us a little more about that event?
We work the state bowling competition. We cheer them on, work with people who need assistance, volunteer in any capacity we can. This year we served as grand marshals for the opening ceremonies. We escorted delegates from each county in Georgia. We stayed around for the dance after and signed autographs and danced with the athletes. We just had a good time and showed them support in any way that we could.
 | | SAAB student-athletes Special Olympics |
What student-athlete welfare issues is SAAB currently focusing on, and how are you going about trying to make those changes?
Something recently came up dealing with books (and supplies) for student-athletes. We have something at Georgia Tech called Course Packs. They are required packs that are put together by professors so that you don't have to buy $150 text books. They are a more feasible packet of information that you are going to use to get through those classes. As a board, we are trying to get those to student-athletes without having to pay for them first (out of pocket) and then have to go through a reimbursement process. (If a course is requiring a course packet, that packet would be treated as textbooks... meaning, they are bought just like another text book.)
What programs does SAAB sponsor for the student-athletes?
We joined up with the Total Person Program. Once a semester, a speaker comes in. Last semester we had someone speak about drugs and alcohol and how they affect performance. This semester we are going to have a speaker, who was actually a member of the mafia, speak about gambling, dealing with sports. At the end of the year, we put on an event called Yellow Jacket Celebration. It is a banquet celebrating everything we have done in athletics - all teams, all coaches. We have a guest speaker and pretty much everyone in athletics is there. We give out awards, some for community service, some for academic performance. It's a really nice event.
 | | Baseball players performing community service. |
How did you personally get involved with SAAB?
I was actually kind of pushed into service. I had questions about a lot of things when I first got here so I went around asking questions of certain people. During my second year, Coach (Chan) Gailey, our head coach at the time, recommended to me that I join the Board (and get involved).
What do you like the most about being on Georgia Tech's SAAB?
The biggest thing is the interaction among the teams. What is so hard a lot of times is trying to communicate with other students. Even though we are all student-athletes, we rarely get the opportunity to spend time with each other. So many times, people are just involved with their sports, just worried about their seasons. Being on the advisory board allows me to interact with athletes from other sports on a monthly basis. I get a chance to deal with people from all the sports here at Georgia Tech. I guess the same goes when we have community service projects. It's just that chance to see people away from their sports specifically and just interact with one another.
How do you think your time on SAAB will help you after graduation?
Definitely (the ability to) work with people and group dynamics. You realize how to communicate things to different people, the way they feel the benefit, expressing the benefits to everybody by the things we do, how it can help everybody - not just for the short term, but for the long term. And the importance of building relationships... because a lot of times we can't get things done (alone). Say the football team wants something they can't just get it done on their own. We are going to have to partner up with different groups or different teams to make things happen. Being on a board definitely allows you the opportunity to work with people and realize you are going to have to work with people throughout life. Getting this opportunity now definitely helps out.
Is there anything else you would like the public to know about Georgia Tech's SAAB or its student-athletes?
We are getting together a group of regular campus students with a group of student-athletes to sit down and brainstorm how we can build better relationships across the campus. That has been one of our focuses this year - helping student-athletes become more a part of the student population. Even though student-athletes are extremely busy, a lot of times they expressly want to do different activities and events with other student organizations on campus. Student government has committed to helping us achieve this goal. We are trying to get a couple of events where it is going to be Georgia Tech student-athletes maybe matched up with a fraternity or sorority to go out and do things within the community.
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