BATON ROUGE — LSU volleyball players Regan Hood and Melody Clark spoke to students at Audubon Elementary on Friday morning as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
The student-athletes spoke to a class in the school library about the importance of education and staying in school as well as teamwork and what it was like to be an athlete at LSU.
Hood is a senior middle blocker for the volleyball team. A second-team All-SEC selection in 2003, the Carrollton, Texas, native is a four-year starter for the Tigers and ranks second on the team in kills per game and third in blocks per game.
A Colorado Springs, Colo., native, Clark is a right side hitter for the volleyball team. The sophomore has played in every match this season and ranks fifth on the team in kills per game and second in blocks per game.
Clark is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The council serves as the governing body for the LSU student-athletes. Council members sponsor many community service events including the Halloween BOOzar, which took place on Thursday night, and the Christmas Toy Drive.
SAAC members also serve as liaison between student-athletes and athletic & academic support staff playing an essential role in creating regulations and keeping their teammates informed any changes with respect to the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes.
The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.