PHOTO GALLERY
Thirty-seven student-athletes attended the 2017 Empire 8 Summit, which was held at the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa in Fairport, NY from Jan. 27-28.
In addition to the student-athletes, there were ten campus advisors and five Direct Reports in attendance. The Summit is made possible through the NCAA Strategic Grant Tier II funds and provides the Empire 8 with an opportunity to bring campus personnel together from around the conference to integrate and collaborate on ideas.
Commissioner Mitrano served as the keynote speaker on Friday night and spoke on ‘Sportsmanship is about winning’. Mitrano’s presentation shed light to a new aspect of preparation for the student-athletes. The physical and tactical training are important in order to win games but sportsmanship also plays a role.
He told the group to focus on things that they can control rather then things they can't control. Don’t focus on the refs or the opposing stands; rather focus on themselves as a player and what they should be doing on the field.
“Reputation is like a sand castle; hard to build but easily destroyed,” said Mitrano. “You can spend so much time building a positive team culture, and the slightest negativity can set you on a downwards spiral.”
Saturday was the real highlight of the weekend as the focus turned towards the National DIII partnership with Special Olympics. Thirteen SO-athletes from the New York – Genesee Region joined the Summit attendees in some friendly but highly competitive basketball and floor hockey held at Nazareth College.
"We were extremely honored and humbled that Special Olympics was able to spend the day with our E8 athletes and advisors,” said Associate Commissioner Zera. "The biggest benefit was forming a bond through something everyone loves: playing sports. It was a great way for our student-athletes to learn what it means to be a Special Olympics athlete and to make some really amazing connections with people who are just as passionate about the game as we are."
Everyone then joined together for lunch back at the Woodcliff where they had a chance to continue to build relationships and share stories about being athletes.
The Summit finished with the E8 athletes and SO-athletes dividing into teams and participating in some Minute-to-Win-it challenges. They had sixty-seconds to complete tasks that included putting a cereal box cut into 16 pieces back together, separating 50 M&M’s into color coded cups with one hand, getting six penne noodles onto a spaghetti noodle with no hands, etc… The support for the challenges from teammates filled the room and was closely contested that it come down to a tie-breaker when teams had to a roll a quarter across the table and get it to stick in-between the prongs of a fork.
“Special Olympics would like to thank the Empire 8, it's schools and every participating student-athlete for their continued support of our athletes and our movement,” said Josh Dority, Senior Director of Program for Special Olympics NY Genesee & Western Regions. “The Empire 8 Summit was another great opportunity to show how both groups of athletes are more alike than they are different. Our organization is fortunate to have developed such a wonderful partnership and we look forward to strengthening that partnership in the future. “
“We hope that the Summit provided the participants with information and resources to dedicate, discover and develop their future in Division III athletics and beyond and continue the build the partnership with Special Olympics back on their own campus,” stated Zera.