Two weeks ago Kenneth Farr was elected as president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

SAAC is responsible for providing a student athlete a voice within the athletic department and amongst the athletes. The committee also serves as a leadership role, through active participation in a variety of community service events, promoting a positive student athlete image on campus and organizing events on campus, reported former SAAC president Tenaya Davis.

The committee is made up of at least one representative from each sports team on campus, plus a board. They put on various events around campus for athletes as well as the student body, to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“The Make-A-Wish Foundation is for children who are very sick or have different types of cancer,” said Farr. “The children make a wish to the foundation, and Make-A-Wish uses the money that is preceded towards them to make the children’s wish come true.”

As president, Farr’s responsibility is to plan and run each SAAC meeting, guide the subcommittees, and serve as the key liaison with the athletic department to help with planning and organizing SAAC events, reports Davis.

Prior to becoming president of the SAAC committee, Farr worked his way up to the position.  He first came to CSUEB as a freshman planning to major in liberal studies, to pursue his life-long dream of becoming a teacher. He was also offered a position on the men’s basketball team; however, SAAC was not always a club that particularly interested him.

“My freshman year, Will Freedman was the representative from the men’s basketball team, and he was graduating,” Farr said. “I was the only freshman on the team so he grabbed me and was like ‘hey freshman you’re going to the SAAC meetings!’ He just threw me in; it wasn’t something I wanted to do. I was like ‘why do I have to be here? I guess I’ll go get the free pizza.’ I’m very glad I stuck it out though, because I would not have made it as far as did today if I didn’t.”

The years before he was president, Farr only served as a representative for the committee. Around the end of his sophomore year he began to learn more about the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

“I saw that I could really relate to the committee’s goal. I wanted to help grant the wishes of sick children and was interested in promoting events; and that made me want to become more involved,” Farr said.

During his junior year and up until the time he was elected president, Farr served as the vice president of social programming for the SAAC committee.

One thing that Farr is looking forward to during the next school year is forming closer connections with people on campus.

“I’m really excited about our communications role,” he said. “Paul Dewhurst, who is on the soccer team and is also a communications major, is going to be vice president of communications. …I feel like that can really help us get messages out to the student body.”

Through all the excitement, Farr is aware of the hard work and sacrifices it takes to be president of the committee.

“As you can imagine, being SAAC president takes time, commitment, and hard work on top of schoolwork and competing and training for your sport,” said Davis. “It’s up to each president to decide how much extra time they want to spend planning events, researching ideas, and implementing new things.”

This year, Farr has managed to familiarize himself with the position before he begins in full swing next year. Marissa Parry, the director of SAAC, decided to host elections early. The board that was currently elected is to finish out the rest of this year and continue next year. This differs from the committee’s usual elections, which are normally at the very end of the year, and the elected board begins their positions the following year.

“I am still learning to manage my time,” Farr Said. “But I usually just sit down and ask myself ‘okay, what do you have coming up, when do you need to do it, when do you want it done?’ and I just go from there. There are times that come up when I’m like ‘I want to go here but I need to do this, guess I’m not going here.’ You have to make a lot of sacrifices and that is what I’m in the process of learning now, but it’s worth it.”

Davis as well as other SAAC members are confident in Farr’s abilities to serve as a successful leader.

“Kenny has such a positive outgoing personality; I’m sure anyone that knows him can agree with me on that one,” Davis said. “He takes pride in his work, and has a great relationship with the student athletes, students and administration on our campus. He is a role model in our community and I believe that people respect him. I am proud of him for his accomplishments and can’t wait to see his future successes as SAAC president,” she exclaimed.