In the spring of 2013, The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Presidents Council affirmed its commitment to respect and inclusion by placing their support behind a project aimed at combatting homophobia on campus and recognizing the benefit of diversity at each member institution. Matt Dekens, former President of the NAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and Johnson State College student-athlete, pitched the concept of creating the You Can Play video as a means of achieving the goal of the NAC leadership. It was through the hard work and thoughtful discussion of the full NAC SAAC that shaped the message and launched the project.
The NAC, in conjunction with its 10 member institutions, proudly announced the launching of its You Can Play Project on November 19, 2014. Supporting the You Can Play Mission of “ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation,” the NAC embarked upon a video project capturing the voices of student-athletes, administrators and coaches, to share a commitment of inclusion for and in support of, all members of the conference community.
In order to maintain the student ownership and authenticity, the NAC tapped into resources from one of the member campuses to capture the voices of the student-athletes. Several seniors at the New England School of Communications of Husson University traveled over 1,500 miles to sit down with NAC Student-Athletes & Athletics Staff. The result of this hard work is a three minute conference-wide video, which premieres as the first portion of this two part program. The three minute piece took the students 10 weeks of writing, filming, interviewing, and editing to effectively capture the You Can Play mission. In addition, the students created 10 different 30 second spots to represent each member institution in the conference.
The You Can Play team is proud to call the North Atlantic Conference a partner.