When Raef Sauer was nominated as a candidate for the IHSAA Student Advisory Committee in the spring of 2020, he felt very confident in the application that he submitted.
Sauer has always done well in school, and he participates in numerous extracurricular activities at Center Grove, including cross country and track — so on paper, he was good to go.
Doing an interview with the 18 sitting members of that committee, as well as the IHSAA’s Board of Directors, on the other hand, made Sauer a little more nervous.
“It’s kind of uncomfortable, especially for a high schooler,” Sauer said. “You have to present yourself in a good light and try to make sure you look formal and everything. That was an uncomfortable thing that has made me a better leader. I think I’ve had to come out of my shell a little bit.”
Both Sauer and Franklin’s Ava Ray are among the nine seniors statewide who are entering their second year on the Student Advisory Committee (SAC), a group of student-athletes selected to work with the IHSAA throughout the school year. Though the pandemic canceled out some of the committee’s usual activities, the students still had plenty of responsibilities on their plate.
Each of the committee members works a certain number of state championship events, getting an opportunity to meet various state dignitaries and handing out awards to the participants. Ray, for example, handed out championship medals to the Roncalli softball team in June, while Sauer got to give the Class 6A football trophy to his Center Grove schoolmates.
“I have a lot of friends on the football team, so that was really cool,” Sauer said.
Kerri Schludecker, one of the IHSAA’s two primary SAC liaisons along with fellow assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens, said that roughly 70 rising juniors are nominated each year by their respective athletic directors. Based on applications, the Executive Committee narrows that candidate pool to 20 students who get brought in for interviews.
Though the Board of Directors sits in on those interviews, the selection process is in the hands of the 18 students in the SAC at the time — nine outgoing seniors choosing their replacements alongside the nine juniors who will return.
Much like Sauer, Ray wasn’t at all sure she was going to make the cut.
“I really did not even expect to get an interview,” she admitted.
Schludecker said that the SAC’s primary responsibility during the school year is helping to plan the annual IHSAA Student Leadership Conference, the largest one-day event of its kind in the nation. The 18 committee members are tasked with securing the roughly three dozen guest speakers who will address the hundreds of student-athletes visiting from around the country.
Since that event was canceled in 2020 and 2021, planning that event will be a new experience for everyone serving on the SAC this year. Though Ray and Sauer didn’t have that responsibility as juniors, they did get a chance to take part in a major service project — the iCan Bike camp on the southside of Indianapolis last month.
During that five-day camp, SAC members got to work directly with special-needs children, helping them learn how to ride a bicycle.
“It was one of the most life-changing experiences I’ve ever had,” Ray said. “It was just so amazing to be able to be a part of it, and being able to be in this group I’m able to be a part of things that are a lot bigger than myself.”
The biggest benefit to being on the committee, according to just about everyone involved, is the chance to build the interpersonal skills that will help the student-athletes to grow up and become strong leaders as adults. Both Sauer, who hopes to have a career in medicine, and Ray, who hasn’t decided on a career path but aspires to end up in a leadership role in whatever she does, said that their experience on the SAC has bolstered their skill set in that regard.
The changes in just a few months’ time have been quite noticeable.
“They’re real nervous their junior year, but come senior year it’s a whole different person,” Schludecker said. “It is really neat to see how much they grow.”
