Starting in fall 2017, ENC softball player Emily Gomez will serve as the Community Service Representative on the Commonwealth Coast Conference’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). The CCC SAAC Board, comprised of student-athletes from other schools in the conference, elected Gomez over nine other candidates for the position.

SAAC acts as the liaison between student-athletes and the NCAA as a form of student representation. At least two representatives for each athletic team at ENC have been selected, and from those team representatives, five are selected for the Executive Board (E-Board) that represents ENC at Commonwealth Coast Conference SAAC meetings.

Currently, Emily works alongside her sister, and softball teammate, Heidi Gomez to advertise games, promotions, and events involving athletes on campus. Anytime ENC puts on a “whiteout” or a “blackout” for an event on campus it is because of the efforts of the Gomez twins.

Emily Gomez is a transfer student from Briarcliffe College in Long Island, New York, and will be entering her senior year this upcoming fall as a Liberal Arts major. She joined SAAC as the softball representative her sophomore year and has worked her way up SAAC leadership thanks to her constant involvement in SAAC-related activities.

“Even when I wasn’t on the E-Board for the school, Jordan Grays [2015 SAAC President] would always ask me to help with the different events SAAC would put on. I would do it because I love to help out and I enjoy giving back to the community,” said Emily Gomez about how she got started in SAAC.

Emily was encouraged by her sister to take this position by the current Vice President of the ENC SAAC E-Board, Nick Story. Story is also a transfer student that plays for the ENC baseball team and served as the Community Service Representative this past year. One of Story’s main reasons behind encouraging Emily to seek this position was his knowledge of Emily’s willingness to serve.

“Emily is a very outgoing person which is great for this position because you have to want to put yourself out there for others to see you and what you’re trying to do,” said Story regarding Emily’s credentials. “She was one of the main people behind the street fair we had for the soccer team last year and why it was so successful.”

As the Community Service representative, Emily hopes to plan more events involving the Special Olympics, similar to the one SAAC put together at Roger Williams University last year. Although she has not officially taken the position, she has already thought about doing a campus-wide play day with Special Olympic athletes interacting with student-athletes across the Commonwealth Coast Conference. She hopes that the $500 grant the ENC SAAC received from one of the events they hosted last year will be able to be put to good use next fall.