Hokie ClubZach Glesius, a senior goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team, not only thrives off the strict demands of student-athlete life with academics and team obligations, but adds more to his legacy at Virginia Tech with his impactful time on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and his numerous service efforts.
Glesius has served on SAAC since the beginning of his sophomore year where he started out as a member and has now been elected President for his senior year.
What inspired him to get involved in SAAC at Virginia Tech?
“I have always sought out positions of leadership,” he explained. “I wanted to be able to make a difference and understand more than just the part on the field which was always very interesting to me.”
Glesius described that as a student-athlete, he was used to seeing one side of a situation and how it is affecting them, but he now has the opportunity to see what is going on at the legislative level which is impacting student-athletes countrywide.
“SAAC had President Sands at a meeting last year when the House versus NCAA settlement was proceeding,” he said. “He had the opportunity to share how it was proceeding on his end and we got to do the same.”
Glesius explained that being a voice for the student-athletes with a bottom-up approach communicating to higher levels but also being an intermediary bringing information down to the student-athlete body for mutual understanding keeps him interested in growing in his position on SAAC.
He has had the opportunity to be a part of several changes in his time on SAAC. With something as seemingly small as changing hours for student-athletes access to their respective facilities to be more accommodating of recovery and travel needs, “Small things that you would not think about are just minor inconveniences during the day but when those things are streamlined and made right in your eyes, it helps optimize your experience,” Glesius mentioned.
Due to his recent appointment as President for Virginia Tech SAAC, he had the opportunity to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina in July to represent the Hokies for the ACC SAAC In-Person Retreat which happens twice a year.
“With the current environment of college sports, a large part of the meeting was about all of the legislation being passed around,” Glesius recounted. “We spent a lot of time talking about the House settlement that was just recently passed which had changed for revenue and non-revenue sports all across every school. The ACC leadership heard out some of the SAAC representative concerns and we listened to how they were attempting to address our concerns.”
The ACC SAAC In-Person Retreat is a largely collaborative and conversational environment for SAAC representatives and leadership to come together bring their own ideas to the table, as well as hear what is working for other schools and bring back to their executive boards for potential implementation in the future. With time set aside for recreational activities and team bonding, Glesius felt the environment open up for easier and more productive conversation.
“In general, student-athletes are a unique and hard-working group but meeting the student-athletes on those teams who also went as far as joining ACC SAAC, that is a whole other level of investment,” he said.
When reflecting on his experience at the retreat, he shared his biggest takeaway from the group.
“One thing that a couple schools brought up that I thought could be interesting is making sure that SAAC is connected with other student organizations on campus,” he said. “We did an event last year where we invited a group of student organizations to come out for the Unity Walk, where we all walked to the baseball field for a tailgate. Although there was a low attendance from outside organizations, it pushes us to expand our footprint into other groups on campus. It would really impact how much we are heard by them and how much they are heard by us and strengthen that relationship. It seems like that is moving in other schools and I think that is something we can implement at Tech as well.”
What are some of the ways SAAC has supported him as a student-athlete?
“You can definitely impact the student-athlete experience for yourself and others through SAAC,” he replied. “For example, as a group we put on the Gobblers which is our end of the year student-athlete award show. By being on SAAC, you can make that show what you want to make it. If it was just ran by advisors, they would not know what kind of show we wanted, so being able to be on the board and make decisions was really cool.”
The support provided to student-athletes does not stop with SAAC but also is built into Student-Athlete Development resources accessible to all.
“They have mental health classes, clinics and camps,” he explained. “They also have career development events. I just got a free business suit because I attended some events learning how to make a resumé, how to apply, and how to network. I am lucky to have those opportunities and get a suit to be able to use at the events I am learning about in the career development classes.”
Not only did he get to plan the Gobblers, he was also decorated with two awards that night. The first award he received was the Skelton Award for Academic Excellence, which is awarded to student-athletes who record an overall GPA of 3.40 or higher and are active in community outreach.
Student-athlete life can be a very demanding schedule to maintain. For Zach, he thrives off of it.
“There is no doubt that being a student-athlete takes up a lot of time, but for me having that structure, schedule, and all other support systems that come with being a student-athlete is super helpful,” Glesius said.
A senior studying biology and actively applying to medical school, Glesius has made the balance work well in his time at Tech.
“Being a student-athlete has honestly made it easier because I have been so structured,” he replied. “I have had that schedule and have also had the time away from school and studying by being able to go out on the field for the three hours and hang out with all of my best friends and just play and unwind.”
Off the field, he spends his time continuing to hang out with the team whether that includes studying, cooking, and bonding with the newcomers with their “freshman karaoke” traditions.
The second award he was recognized for at the Gobblers was the ACC Top XI for Service.
Glesius is not new to doing service in the community, having done it his entire life but more specifically at Virginia Tech, he got involved in the second semester of his freshman year with three organizations: Literacy New River Valley, Brain Injuries Solutions, and Friends of Peak Creek.
“Literacy NRV is an organization where we teach adults English literacy to help them get their license, their citizenship, and help teach their kids in school when English is not their first language. I was empowered to volunteer with them when I took a step back and realized even speaking English is such a privilege in this country and it would be so difficult to maneuver here without being able to speak English.”
“Brain Injury Solutions is a non-profit organization for adults who have sustained brain injuries or who have experienced mental decline. I got paired with a pal and we would go get meals, have phone calls, and I even got the opportunity to go with him to meet his granddaughter for the first time.”
“Friends of Peak Creek is a non-profit organization in Pulaski, Virginia that assists cleanup efforts of the central waterway running through town to increase water quality for the community and wildlife and allow people to return to water sports activities.”
He also assists in local service efforts locally in Blacksburg with the soccer team going to read at nearby elementary schools and spend time in multiple classrooms hanging out with the kids answering all their questions. He explained the potential to continue the relationship with elementary schools to give incentive with reading programs to award the highest scoring readers the chance for an exclusive pregame experience with the Hokies.
Glesius is passionate about long-term service efforts with creating and maintaining relationships within the community.
“I find it really important to get involved in things over a long period of time,” he said. “Over the course of months or even years, if you can, being able to work with the same group over an extended period of time is really helpful to be able to understand how you can best serve them which I have really tried to do when starting my service opportunities pretty early on.”
Glesius appreciates the community within his team that he has embraced the last three years, namely the exposure to international talent.
“The international portion of soccer is probably one of the coolest parts about the sport,” he said. “I have met more people from different countries these last four years than in my whole life.”
Bonding with the team does not only happen on the field, but off the field as well.
“We eat together and travel together so you really get to know the guys,” he elaborated. “I think just as important as it is to know how you play on the field with each other, it is important to know each other off the field too and it makes the teamwork part of the field a lot easier. Being able to be tight off the field, although it may not seem like it translates directly to soccer, I would say that it really does make a big difference.”
With the ability to tighten the bond on and off the field with the team preseason, Glesius is excited for the updated roster and to kick off the game schedule.
“We are only bringing back 12 or 13 kids, but it is a very solid group and we have a lot of new kids coming in from all over the world,” he explained. “Soccer is really strong overseas so I am excited to see what these kids can do. We have really strong tactics and game design. We are very confident in who we are as a team and we know what we want to do. We know that if we go out and play our game against any team, we will be really competitive and be able to win.”