Seniors Aaditya Jain and Annie Peng, the leaders of Lynbrook’s Athletic Senate, are behind the recently added award, Athlete of the Month. This newly established group focuses on hosting spirited student sections and recognizing sports teams and individual athletes by presenting awards for notable sportsmanship.
The Athletic Senate, first proposed by Jennifer Griffin, the athletic director, was an idea that stemmed from Lynbrook’s highly academic environment where she felt that many athletes were often overlooked. While her original plans began in 2018, progress was delayed until 2023 due to COVID-19. They focus on shifting the negative perception of athletics at Lynbrook by making sports games more exciting with themed events and student sections. This has increased the publicity of these games, drawing more students to cheer on their peers and participate in school sports.
“We want to highlight our athletic accomplishments and teams,” Griffin said. “One of our goals is to bring more students out to games.”
Griffin introduced this idea to Jain, the ASB Secretary at the time. He was able to provide help in overseeing interviews, bringing the Athletic Senate to life. However, the group faced organizational challenges and was unable to host any events due to the lack of members. The following school year, Griffin presented a new application system during the athlete interest meeting, looking for potential candidates to bring visibility to a large group of athletes. Through a rigorous written application and interview process, Peng and Jain were chosen as co-presidents to lead the group.
“When Mrs. Griffin had this idea of the Athletic Senate, I thought it was a great opportunity that I could contribute to,” Peng said. “I’m also an athlete, and I wanted athletes to be more recognized and overall have better publicity.”
A new addition to the senate is the Athlete of the Month award, recognizing student athletes who demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship and leadership among their teammates. Each month, the Athletic Senate sends a form to coaches, allowing them to nominate one student from their team. After a discussion within the senate, one female and one male winner is chosen. Currently, the Athlete of the Month recipient is featured on the Lynbrook Athletics Instagram page, but the Athletic Senate is working toward incorporating additional incentives for the award recipients, including recognition through morning announcements or the weekly newsletters.
“The purpose of the senate is to recognize, respect and appreciate our student athletes on campus,” Jain said. “We also hope to make students realize that athletics are fun and encourage them to be active members in the sports community.”
The Athletic Senate consists of 20 members with key roles such as Directors of Student Culture, Directors of Student Section, Event Managers, Public Relations Directors, Journalists, Photographers and Website Managers. The senate is divided into two primary departments: public relations and events. The public relations team is responsible for creating promotions on Instagram for each game and featuring Athlete of the Month award winners. Meanwhile, the events team focuses on organizing student sections and themes at sports games. Together, senate members meet bi-weekly to discuss upcoming events and select the Athlete of the Month award recipients.
Besides awards, the Athletic Senate focuses on bringing sports to a larger audience of students. With Lynbrook’s mascot, Victor the Viking, and themes like “Pink-out,” the senate is creating a more engaging and exciting environment for the audience at games. The Athletic Senate also helps organize fundraisers for charities in collaboration with sports teams, like their recent raffle event with the American Cancer Society, where they raised more than $250.
“We hope to incentivize people to come to these events to participate, be a part of the crowd and cheer on our teams,” Jain said. “All our events excite people to come, whether it’s some form of competition or fundraiser.”
Looking ahead, the Athletic Senate aims to expand the amount of events they plan. They also plan to host an end-of-year banquet to celebrate all Athlete of the Month winners and introduce additional awards, such as Athlete of the Year and Coach of the Year. They continue to work closely with Griffin to bring more engaging, interactive activities during halftime, such as a half-court shooting contest during basketball games.
“I look forward to seeing all that we can do,” Griffin said. “I have a great group of students, many of whom are athletes, that are working hard to keep our athletic teams in the spotlight.”
