Women's Basketball | 4/25/2016 1:31:00 PM

STATESBORO - Georgia Southern rising redshirt senior women's basketball player Alexis Sams has been voted and named the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's President for the 2016-2017 academic year, as released Monday. 

Sams, from Orlando, Florida, will be joined on the cabinet by:
Vice President - Maggie Howard - Women's Soccer
Secretary - Taylor Thompson - Women's Golf
Treasurer - Anna Battistello - Swimming & Diving

"It's an honor to be voted president of SAAC," Sams said. "It's going to be a little bit more work and responsibility, but I'm excited. I think it's an awesome honor to have the other student-athletes want me to be their president."

Sams will graduate from GS in a few weeks with a degree in exercise science and will spend her fifth year playing basketball for the Eagles as a graduate student.

"Hopefully all of this is a good resume builder," Sams said. "But I try not to worry too much about what my resume looks like because I think all of my experiences are more important, and I'm certainly very excited that I will get to include 'SAAC President' in all of that. I'm going to learn so much taking on this leadership role. Being able to talk to faculty members and make a difference is just all really exciting. I haven't quite established any goals for next year, but [outgoing SAAC President] Mary Phillips [Smith] and [Senior Woman's Administrator] Cathy [Beene] did a great job and hopefully I can continue to build on what they've already established."

The student-athlete advisory committee is comprised of student-athletes representing each of the athletic sports. The SAAC's roles are to: promote communication between athletics administration and student-athletes', generate a student-athlete voice within the campus athletics department, build a sense of community within the athletics program involving all athletics teams, and organize community service efforts and to promote a positive student-athlete image on campus.

This group of officers will replace the 2015-16 group, which consisted of: 
President - Mary Phillips Smith - Women's Tennis
Vice-President - Molly Donehoo - Women's Soccer
Secretary - Crysten Curry - Volleyball
Treasurer - Taylor Kelsch - Swimming and Diving