'Getting on Track' with Orange Athletics

by Gloria Nantulya

The two yellow school buses arrived at Manley Field House filled with 80 fifth-grade students from Frazer Elementary buzzing with excitement. This was not just any other morning for these students. This was a morning that most of them will probably remember for the rest of their lives. The students were preparing to participate in the “Getting on Track” SynerCuse program in which were scheduled to spend the day at Manley and the Carrier Dome, meeting real life college student-athletes and touring the athletics facilities.

“Getting on Track” was created to educate the children about the importance of education and how it relates to sports and student-athletes.

“I think this program helps make the kids realize that college is a tangible thing,” said Dan Lehane, a Syracuse University sports management major and one of the event organizers. “College has always been an ideal that is talked about and most of these kids don’t actually see what it is like. I think after all this they will realize that athletes are actual people just like they are.”

The children began the day by making presentations about African-American athletes who had a large societal impact beyond their chosen sport. Some of the athletes profiled included Jesse Owens and Frederick “Carlton” Lewis and Florence Griffith Joyner.

“I think that doing the research was wonderful because they got to see that a lot of the

athletes who went on to be in the Olympics faced some challenges and obstacles and were able to be successful,” said Theresa Neddo, a fifth-grade teacher whose class attended the event.

After the presentations the students enjoyed a tour of the Manley Field House facilities, which included the weight room, training room and the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing. Members of Syracuse’s track & field squads then provided the students with a demonstration of their events while chatting about how their experiences as collegiate student-atheltes. Orange head coach Chris Fox and Sports Management Director Michael Veley also spoke with the group. The visit concluded with a trip to the Dome.

“It was really nice demonstrating the events for the kids,” said senior All-American heptathlete Jillian Drouin. “I just love that they have interest to learn about the events that we do and about this new sport, which isn’t as highly publicized as the other sports.”

Lehane and fellow sport management major Jina Song, along with the help of Adriel Aponte and Rachel Bubier, created and organized the “Getting on Track” event. It is part of the SynerCuse program that was developed in 2007 by Veley and Athletics Director Dr. Daryl Gross, in an attempt to enhance the marketing of SU’s Olympic sports teams. Other SynerCuse programs include “Kick-Or-Treat,” a costume contest that was held in October during the Halloween night SU men’s soccer game, and the “Return a Serve Contest” during a tennis match earlier this spring in which participants were challenged to make a play on the serve of head coach Luke Jensen.

“I think one of the most important things for them is just to experience Manley as part of a college experience and have these student-athletes show them that college is not just an idea that they can push off to the side and that is very important,” Song said.

The fifth- graders were equally excited about the experience. Most of the children, like Joseph and Phuong, agreed that the tour was the most exciting part of the day. To others in the group including Andrea, Sara and Malik, learning about the sports and the lessons they received from the athletes is what they remembered most.

“They said keep trying and keep trying and keep trying,” said Malik of the advice he had received. “So I am going to stick with that.”

Syracuse University Athletics

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