HARRISONBURG, Va. – For the second time in three years, an EMU student-athlete had the privilege of attending the annual NCAA Convention.

Alex Belisle, a junior on the cross country and track & field teams from Newport News, received an invite from the ODAC to participate in the convention, held Jan. 13-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Women's basketball player Adrianna Jacobs represented the Royals at the 2024 NCAA Convention in Phoenix, Ariz.

The EMU Athletics Communications Office recently sat down with Belisle to learn more about his experience and takeaways from the convention, how he got there and his future career ambitions in college athletics.

Q: What was the process you went through to be chosen to attend the convention?

Belisle: So, I had expressed interest earlier this year to my coach, [Director of Cross Country, Track & Field and Triathlon] Bob Hepler, about wanting to pursue coaching, or athletics in general, professionally after college. Then he was sent something about the convention, and he forwarded an email about it to me and said that he thought it would be a good opportunity to look into coaching, or even possibly, he thinks I'd be a good administrator. So, he sent me the application to apply, and then I answered some questions. It was pretty simple, and I heard back a few weeks later, and I got selected.

Q: When you heard about this opportunity, why did you want to go?

Belisle: Specifically, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to meet people who are involved in the athletic space, especially with Division III, because I'm more interested in coaching Division III than I would be the other divisions. I think, as a Division III athlete, I've seen the benefit of DIII over other divisions. Yeah, I think just seeing I wanted the opportunity to meet athletic directors and just create opportunities for myself to network in the athletics space.

Q: What was your reaction when you found out you were chosen?

Belisle: I was super excited. I had been worried because it was quite a long wait, actually, between application and hearing anything about it. I applied, and then it was a few weeks, maybe even a month, until I heard anything at all. It was just, I thought that I probably wouldn't have gotten it. So I was very excited about going.

Q: What all did this grant include? What did it pay for?

Belisle: Essentially everything. It covered the hotel, they reimbursed me for my mileage for travel. They reimbursed all the food that we got.

Q: So now you're at the convention. Tell me a bit about your experience there.

Belisle: The first day was pretty easy. There were some optional sessions to go to, but I got there after those. So just got in, checked into the hotel and got registered for the convention. They gave us some free swag, got socks, and a gift voucher for the gift shop. I was there and got a quarter zip. Then, all of the representatives and the student delegates from the ODAC, we went to Top Golf, had a good dinner there and just played golf and got to know each other. We talked with [ODAC Director of Championships] Stacy Staley, who was our representative from the ODAC.
Wednesday was the kind of the bulk of the meetings for the student-athletes. So from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., there were meetings all day. We had sessions talking about mental health and the importance of self-care and advocating for yourself as a student-athlete.

There was an awards show, which was really cool. The NCAA gives awards every year to people who demonstrate the values of the NCAA with being not only exceptional athletes, but also pursuing things outside of athletics, whether that be philanthropy or professional pursuits. There were some really great athletes there. Tamika Catchings, who was a professional basketball player in the WNBA, and [former NFL quarterback] Drew Brees was there. So, there was a lot of cool sessions like that, and then other informational sessions where we learned more about the changing legislation in the NCAA and emerging sports programs, where they're adding extra sports for women.

Q: What was your favorite session that you attended?

Belisle: I think my favorite session was the LGBTQ awards show. I think a lot of the sessions were very professionally-oriented. There were sessions talking about the use of technology and how AI can be helpful in professional settings and for athletic directors and administrators. I think that stuff is valuable to some extent, but it was really nice to kind of have a break from all the professional talk, and this was a smaller session in one of the smaller conference rooms. I think it was just people being very genuine and really showing the community that DIII can build, and showing that it's an inclusive community that cares about people and values when people go out of their way to be supportive and inclusive of people who ordinarily might not feel as comfortable in athletics, right? That was really valuable.

Q: What did you enjoy about the student-led sessions?

Belisle: The main student-led session was on Wednesday night. There was a student social mixer where there was a Lip Sync Battle, which was pretty cool. Again, it was nice to let down the kind of professional veneer that we had to put on for the rest of the convention and just get to meet other DIII student-athletes from across the country, from different schools and conferences you've never heard of, and sports that you didn't realize were NCAA sports.

Q: Do you feel like this kind of broadened your scope and understandings of the behind-the-scenes of collegiate athletics?

Belisle: For sure. I think it made me realize how big the NCAA is as an organization, and what it oversees. There was the main convention, and then the sessions were very much divided by division. There were a few sessions that spanned divisions and everybody was welcome, but generally the DIII people stuck with DIII, and yet we would still be in rooms where there were over 1,000 people. One meeting, they said that there were 1,200 people in the audience, and it was a DIII-only kind of event, and so it was really shocking to see that there were 1,200 people representing Division III there. Then on the final day, when there was actual voting on legislation, there were nearly 500 people voting on legislation with voting rights for Division III, which, I mean, that just shows how many, how big Division III really is, and there's a lot of people voting on legislation.
 
Q: Do you feel that your time at the convention strengthened your desire to be in collegiate athletics?

Belisle: Definitely. I think it confirmed the things that I already believed in, just in my passion for athletics and how valuable it can be for people and their college experiences. But then it also made me feel a lot more confident in the amount of possibilities that are out there for athletics. I mean, there's hundreds of schools that you can go work for, and so you can move laterally throughout the country in the same position, or you can move vertically into different types of positions. So you can start as a coach but find that you have an interest in administration and work up into that, and eventually be kind of making decisions that impact the entire NCAA. There's a lot of possibilities out there in athletics, and I definitely think [the NCAA C] is a valuable experience for anybody who would be interested in working in athletics.