The College of Wooster's Sarah Lodge was voted by peers from across the North Coast Athletic Conference to serve as an associate member of the NCAA Div. III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
As a national associate representative, Lodge is involved with reviewing NCAA legislation that is voted on at the annual convention, identifying significant student-athlete issues, implementing national student-athlete-based initiatives, encouraging community outreach, enhancing Div. III student-athlete involvement within the national governance structure, and helping with overall understanding of Div. III in general among the student-athletes. The national committee is the group primarily responsible for maintaining and coordinating Div. III's nationwide partnership with Special Olympics.
Within Wooster's SAAC, Lodge serves as the treasurer and social media coordinator. Wooster's SAAC is responsible for the full execution of the department's "Scotties" awards ceremony in the spring, plans a variety of content surrounding NCAA Div. III Week each April, and hosts an Adopt-A-Family drive in partnership with Wayne County's Job and Family Services during the winter holiday season. Additionally, Wooster's SAAC produces content for the NCAA's annual Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign, the SAAC Social Media and Mental Health Awareness initiative, and the organization recently hosted a Track-or-Treat event for local youth in the community.
Lodge is the vice president of the NCAC's SAAC, which is comprised of select SAAC members from each member institution. The conference SAAC reviews NCAA legislation and leads the efforts for the annual NCAC and Presidents' Athletic Conference Change War that coincides with Div. III Week.
The junior outfielder is an economics and education major, who has played in 54 career games entering this season. The College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® honoree broke a tie in the ninth inning with her first collegiate home run against Oberlin College as a sophomore. As a first-year, Lodge came on strong late in the season to finish the year with a .303 (10-for-33) average. She went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI in a win over Ohio Wesleyan University and had eight hits over the last 10 games of the year.
On campus, Lodge is a social media intern for the athletic communication team. Lodge's work includes designing social media assets for the department's main Instagram account, creating reels, and assisting with media day. Lodge creates the NCAA Div. III Week graphics for social media and leads fun social media posts, such as asking for help around campus with unveiling the 2023 football schedule, rating volleyball media day screams, and highlighting pregame hype songs for men's soccer.
The NCAA Div. III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is comprised of one primary and one associate member from each unit represented in the partnership program. A unit consists of two partnered conferences. The NCAC is partnered with the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, which has the primary member within the pairing for the upcoming term. Independent institutions (those not affiliated with a conference) are collectively represented as one additional unit. No more than one student-athlete from a playing conference may serve on the committee at any time. Lodge is Wooster's first representative on the national committee since Julia Higgins served as the primary member in 2018 and 2019.