Student athletes at Simpson College never have to look far to find leadership. Just ask the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, SAAC.

SAAC is a nationally-renowned organization and is featured at colleges and universities all over the United States. SAAC first became affiliated with the NCAA in 1989 in order to offer student-athlete input on activities and proposed legislation that affected the welfare of all student-athletes involved with the NCAA.

The committee meets once a month on campus to discuss items that arise in the NCAA as well as items that come up here at Simpson.

SAAC has two members from every sport that Simpson offers. It’s main goal is to provide more awareness of college athletics in the campus and community. The organization also tries to be involved on campus during the school year in many ways.

Nathan Seberg, assistant strength and conditioning coach and a 2007 graduate of Simpson, is the current faculty adviser of SAAC. As faculty adviser, Seberg helps to oversee the organization, as well as to provide direction and leadership.

“I think that SAAC is going to go very well,” Seberg said. “We’re looking at doing some new and different things. I hope that our involvement with the campus and community continues to grow as well.”

This year, Simpson’s SAAC has two co-presidents, with seniors Laura Montague and Jessica Nims taking the helm. As co-presidents, Montague and Nims will come up with new project ideas, facilitate activities and assign responsibilities to other SAAC members on other various projects throughout the year.

Montague, a member of the women’s basketball team who has been an SAAC member since her sophomore year, enjoys SAAC because she gets to meet new people.

“I like getting to know and meet all the players from the many different sports rather than just being with the people from your own sport,” Montague said.

Nims, who has also been involved since her sophomore year ,is also the captain of the tennis team. She said she is glad that she plays an important role in SAAC.

“I’m involved because I think it is important for students to be aware of what is going on in the NCAA and the IIAC Conference,” Nims said. “I think it is important that we have a say in the issues and we get to voice our opinions.”

The three main things that SAAC are involved in currently are the student-athlete day in April, the student-athlete recognition banquet that takes place in the spring and the Storm spring games. Other activities that SAAC plans to do in the future include visiting The Village retirement center in Indianola and going to the elementary schools in town to speak to the younger children about sports.

Seberg sees SAAC going far and helping to turn the community of Indianola into a more Storm-oriented town.

“I first hope we have a fun year but also I hope to get our community involvement and attendance at the athletic events up,” Seberg said. “I know every athlete likes to see packed stands at their games.”