GNTC welcomes student-athletes
Georgia Northwestern’s student-athletes collectively met at the Walker County Campus on Friday for some free pizza, some new Bobcats gear and an orientation session designed to answer questions about the athletic department and other college issues.
The college’s (approximate) 40 studentathletes, team coaches and assistants were greeted by Athletic Director David Stephenson, Vice-President for Student Affairs Stuart Phillips and Bobcat Life Coach Tom May before digging in for lunch.
Later, the studentathletes in attendance were introduced to several people that work closely with Bobcat Athletics each year, including Student Life Coordinator Dione Waddington, Sports Information Director Scott Herpst and even the Bobcats’ Game Day Public Address Announcer Ron Hall.
“In the past, we’ve just done a big cookout or barbeque thing with everybody and just talked to all them for about five or ten minutes,” Stephenson explained. “But as the year would go on, there were a lot of questions that the student-athletes had about different things.
“We just felt we needed to cover all of this stuff with all the kids that are involved in our program and show them some of the great things associated with our program that might not have known were available to them. Plus the college is going with face-to-face orientation for all the students now, so we felt like this is something we needed to do just for the athletes. Hopefully we’ve covered a lot of things that will be important for them to be successful here at Georgia Northwestern.”
The orientation covered the department’s health partners and physical therapists, student clubs and organizations, intramurals, financial aid, classes and the athletic department’s recent transition from National Junior College to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.
“We just wanted to let our student-athletes know that they have a support system,” Phillips added. “We tried to cover topics that we think will be beneficial to them as they pursue their studies here, not just here on campus, but off-campus as well and introduce them to people are part of that support system, including faculty, staff,