March/April 2015 ABOVE: Bri Hutchen and Ashley Williams (Women’s Basketball) along with Jadyn Spencer (Softball) enjoy a nice conversation with a veteran and Crimson Tide fan. ABOVE: Ashley Williams and Bri Hutchen Throughout the spring semester, student-athletes (Women’s Basketball) learn billiards from a visited the Tuscaloosa VA Hospital. In early Tuscaloosa veteran billiards champion. February, representatives from several teams took part in National Salute to Veterans Patients’ Week, celebrating our servicemen and women from as far back as World War II. Our student-athletes learn so many valuable life lessons from the members of our armed forces, many of which can be applied to their sports. The veteran patients always enjoy visiting with young people, but it is the student-athletes who benefit the most. ABOVE: Ardarius Stewart, Josh Casher, Jonathan Allen, and Reggie Ragland (Football) pose with a veteran. LEFT: Reuben Foster (Football) learns valuable life advice from a 95 year-old World War II veteran. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 March 9— Student-athletes were fortunate enough to listen to Elaine Pasqua, a premier speaker on alcohol safety and sexual/domestic violence. Elaine shared that high-risk drinking is the one behavior that interferes most with a successful college education. Through emotional stories & hard facts, she clearly establishes alcohol's effects on the brain, decision-making processes, & its life-altering outcomes. She also established the relationship of alcohol to sexual assault & warns of the use of date rape drugs. Elaine effectively combined the topics of alcohol, sex, and sexual assault which brought home the relevant message of respecting one another & keeping each other safe. RIGHT & BELOW: Elaine uses an interactive demonstration to teach student-athletes how quickly and easily sexually transmitted infections spread. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 LEFT: Tim Williams (Football) shares his story of overcoming adversity as a child. BELOW: Bo Scarbrough (Football) poses a challenging question to the young people of Easter Seals: “Who do you want to be?” March 26 — Members of the football, men’s basketball, and track and field teams visited the Future Promise Youth Program at Easter Seals of West Alabama. The program is to help at-risk youth in areas of academic improvement, GED preparation, career planning and development, mentoring, job placement, and counseling. Student-athletes shared with the young people their journey to The University of Alabama. Some spoke of overcoming adversity, some of paying attention to who your true friends are, and some of how education and athletics led to their success. It was great for the student-athletes to be able to relate to those who were the same age and give them hope for a successful future. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 April 2 - Members of the baseball, track and field, and football teams visited Verner Elementary School and participated in a wide variety of activities. Student-athletes read with kindergarten and first grade classes and took part in P.E. classes with fourth and fifth grade students. The games of kickball and H.O.R.S.E. were extremely competitive, with our student-athletes getting a huge test from the Verner fourth and fifth graders. As heated as the competition became, our student-athletes did a great job of making sure the youngsters knew to respect your opponents and show great sportsmanship by shaking hands after the game. ABOVE: Dominick Jackson, Cam Robinson, and Johnny Dwight (Football) pose for a “Happy Birthday” photo with a Verner fifth grader. BELOW: Brianna Sims (Track & Field) reads to a first grade class. ABOVE: Taylor Guilbeau (Baseball) signs an autograph, with a highlighter on the forearm. Whatever works! LEFT: UA student-athletes who participated in the kickball game teaching sportsmanship and respect of an opponent by shaking hands after the game. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 ABOVE: Da’Shawn Hand and Cam Robinson greet the first graders as they come up the Walk of Champions. BELOW: Reuben Foster gives his best Coach Saban pre-game speech before hitting the field. ABOVE: Marlon Humphrey demonstrates how to tape an ankle. April 23 - First graders from Holt Elementary received a tour of Bryant-Denny Stadium from some of our football student-athletes. They received the football Saturday game-day experience on a smaller scale, but they could not tell the difference! Youngsters took part in everything from the Walk of Champions to getting their ankles taped to a pre-game speech before running on the field as a member of the Crimson Tide. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 LEFT: Members of the Women’s Swimming and Diving team find themselves in a fierce game of tug-of- war. Members of the Women’s Swimming and Diving team participated in Relay for Life to raise awareness for cancer research. It is organized by the American Cancer Society, and the theme for the event was “Cancer doesn’t sleep, so we won ’t either.” The team participated in events throughout the night such as tug-of-war and a dance-off, with the purpose being continual movement to go along with the theme of the event. The team was among several organizations getting together to honor ABOVE: Team members take part in a dance-off those who have beat cancer and in in an effort to remain awake for 12 hours! memory of those who succumbed to it. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 SAAC President Laura Lee Smith, along with her fellow SAAC reps, organized and executed a first-class event. Krystal Rivers (Center) with Janet Gaston, mother of John Servati (Left) and Head Volleyball Coach Ed Allen (Right) ABOVE: The inaugural John Servati Courage Award, RIGHT: The Paul W. Bryant BRYANT AWARD WINNERS given in the memory of Award is given each spring Crimson Tide swimmer by the Tuscaloosa Chapter John Servati who died last of the National Alumni April saving the life of a Association to the fellow UA student, went to University’s top male and Krystal Rivers (Volleyball). female student-athletes, in Krystal showed tremendous honor of the late, legendary courage in overcoming a battle with cancer last football coach Paul “Bear” winter to come back and Bryant. Levi Randolph and play at an All-American Emily Zabor were this year’s EMILY ZABOR LEVI RANDOLPH level this fall. Rivers also recipients. Randolph became Women’s Tennis Men’s Basketball earned the Comeback the first men’s basketball Athlete of the Year award. Academic All-American while Zabor is an NCAA Elite 89 award winner. RIGHT: Hayden Reed (Track & Field) wins Rookie of the Year and Top Team of the Year: Men’s Golf Play. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 The 2015 SEC Champion gymnastics team was honored as the women’s team with the Men’s Tennis was honored as the male team highest grade point average. Not only did with the highest grade point average. Not only they earn a top 5 finish at the NCAA have they excelled on the court but also in the Championships, but also posted a 3.67 team classroom, earning a 3.34 team GPA GPA in the process. throughout the 2014-2015 academic year. Crimson Tide student-athletes gave almost 3,000 hours toward community service this year. Swimming and diving (left) was the women's squad with the most community outreach hours while baseball (right) earned the honor for the men. Individually, swimmer Travis Kerner and rower Alyssa Drevenak were recognized for their outstanding service to the community. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 BELOW: Stuart Kenyon, Danny Kerznerman, and Andrew Goodwin (Men’s Tennis) are amazed with how prevalent human trafficking is in our state. ABOVE: Dr. Richard Lapchick kicks off Shut April 19-23 - The University of Alabama Athletics Out Trafficking Week with an outstanding teamed with the UA Center for Sustainable Service and keynote address. Volunteerism, the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS), the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and the USOC Athletes Advisory Council to host a human trafficking awareness week titled“ Shut Out Trafficking”. The movement was founded by Dr. Richard Lapchick, who is known as “the race and gender conscience in sports” and considered one of the “100 most powerful people in sports” by the Sports Business Journal and espn.com. The mission of this initiative was ABOVE: Emily Zabor (Women’s Tennis) and to unite the student-body with our student-athletes Jadyn Spencer (Softball) raising awareness against the fastest growing criminal industry in the at The Ferguson Center. world, human trafficking. Throughout this initiative, our student-athletes, along with the student body, were highly interactive and engaging, volunteering in certain capacities such as educating those who passed through the lobby of the Ferguson Center, tweeting facts on issue of human trafficking and changing social media avatars to Shut Out Trafficking logo, and taking part in a variety of events raising awareness on the issue of youth homelessness. In all, throughout the week we reached 6,481 people directly! Through social media, we were able to reach 4.9 million people! ABOVE: Big Al letting you know the signs of human trafficking. Service ● Commitment ● Impact March/April 2015 RIGHT: END IT Movement representative Bryson Vogeltanz opens the “Sleep Out at Soccer” event with a challenge to all students. “Creating awareness should always result in action.” BELOW: Malea Otranto (U.S. Fund for UNICEF) conducts an open discussion after everyone in attendance views the documentary, Not My Life. RIGHT: Alabama Softball with their #ShutOutHT wristbands before the opening game of the Tennessee series. Huge thank you to Coach Murphy, the players, and staff for helping us raise awareness to end human trafficking on a national level.