Indiana University is known for big student support at its athletic events, and much of that has to do with the role of its Student Athletic Board.
Columbus North graduate Nicholas Stevens has been a part of IU’s SAB since his freshman year, and now as a senior, he is its president. He is in charge of the roughly 1,000-member organization that encourages student involvement in all Hoosiers sporting events.
“After being one of the leaders of the Columbus North Dog Pound student section my senior year of 2017 and 2018, finishing top eight in the state according to WISH-TV, I knew I wanted to come to Indiana University and fulfill that same desire of leading a student section, getting people excited, and supporting athletics teams, bands, student projects, and the community in general,” Stevens said. “Once I heard about Student Athletic Board and what their mission and purpose was, I knew I wanted to join and I knew I wanted to one day be President of the organization. Thankfully, through a lot of hard work, great mentors, friends and opportunities, I am currently in that role and have enjoyed my time so far helping to carry the legacy of SAB and be a leader of the best college student section in the nation at the best university in the nation.”
A senior healthcare management and policy major, Stevens joined SAB as a Crimson Guard member as a freshman. He was a committee chair as a sophomore and vice president of administration as a junior.
This spring, Stevens submitted an application for president, then was interviewed by the past president and advisors.
“What I’ve been saying, and it what I really honed on my application for president was, you’re going to have a whole freshman class from last year who could not attend in-person sports, and then you have a whole new freshman class coming in,” Stevens said. “So that’s basically 15,000 people who haven’t been to an in-person sport yet that are going to want to be there. That’s what SAB is there for — to take advantage of those numbers.”
As president, Stevens works with the other Executive Board members — the VPs of Administration, Membership and Communications — to organize and run SAB for the entire year. He is responsible for creating, planning and executing big-picture ideas and plans for the student section, committees and members. The Executive Board meets every week to discuss updates, ideas and plans while listening to advice from the three advisors.
Some ideas that Stevens has instituted so far this year:
• A new Member Relations committee focusing on members’ mental health and well-being, social relationships and recruiting new students to join SAB
• Fun monthly Zoom meetings during the summer, ensuring that members stayed connected with each other
• Required monthly committee meetings to ensure that members were brainstorming ideas and plans for their sports seasons
• Emphasis on marketing and social media accounts to broadcast the organization to the students, campus and community
• A road trip for SAB members to Saturday’s IU at Iowa football season opener and a watch party for that game inside of Memorial Stadium for students not traveling
• In-Game flyers to serve as “cheat sheets” to let students know how they can participate in the student section, whether it be certain chants, running a flag or dressing up in costume
“There’s different committees that are in charge of each sport, so what they’ll do is plan and work with the IU athletics marketing to make the best fan atmosphere possible and do something exciting and energetic,” Stevens said. “We do a whole year-long thing, getting people excited, getting fans out, getting students excited for the different athletic teams.”
That will be a change this year after students could not go to games last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Last year was kind of rough because the organization was basically taking place virtually,” Stevens said. “But even then, we were able to stay connected through Zoom meetings, through watch parties with Big Ten-Plus. We were able to drive around campus and do car parades with horns honking, posters getting people aware and just a lot of social media work. It was kind of disappointing that fans couldn’t go, but we still had watch parties for football and some basketball games where people could come out to Kinsey Hollow and IU’s campus, and there was a big screen set up. We watched IU beat Penn State, and people were running around going crazy, so that was cool to still have a little experience.”
Stevens isn’t the only North graduate heavily involved with IU’s SAB this school year. His friend Floyd Athaide, who was also one of the leaders of the North’s Dog Pound during that 2017-18 year, is an SAB director.
“We would always be communicating, texting and brainstorming how to get students to show up and how to make the best atmosphere possible,” Stevens said. “When we both decided to go to IU, and we decided to room together, we knew that SAB was the best organization for us to continue to expand our interests and display our excitement for all things sports. We always talked about being President and Vice President someday, and even though Floyd is a Director instead of a VP this year, he still has found a lot of success in working with Olympic sports, working with the Bloomington community for volunteerism, and bringing in a lot of students to join as members. I don’t think either of us would be in the position we are now without continued trust, love, and support from the other.”
Matt Ruehman, the 2019-20 student body president and Dog Pound leader at North, joined SAB as a freshman at IU last year and is a chair this year.
Stevens said the overarching theme for this year’s SAB is “Energy, Enthusism, Excitement.” Among his goals:
• Become a commonly recognized and asked about organization on campus in name, logo and purpose
• Become an organization that not only focuses on running the student section at every home sporting event, but also expanding its role on campus to foster professional development and networking with alumni, connect with individuals from different and diverse backgrounds, volunteer in any way they can to leave the community better than they found it, care for the mental health of members and enjoy the experience being a part of the best organization on campus.
• Reenergize and reimagine some of the activities they do during sporting events, creating new traditions for students to remember and repeat for years to come
• Record student attendance at all sports
“It’s going to be fantastic,” Stevens said. “It’s going to be so much fun. There’s so much energy and buzz and energy around campus ranging from freshmen to seniors. Just everyone is excited to be back. You can tell there’s a buzz on campus because coach (Tom) Allen is doing a great job with his football team. There’s a lot of hope and potential there, and then coach (Mike) Woodson and the men’s basketball team, there’s a lot of hope that they’re going to be really good.”
