Fresno State Athletics
Payton Williams Attends NCAA Leadership Conference
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
NCAA Leadership Conference Journal - Entry #1
After messing around with the laptop and getting settled in, I can finally talk about what has been going on in the conference. I spent most of Memorial Day (Monday), flying out here from my home in Moreno Valley, California. There were a few people on our flight that were headed to the conference as well. The Leadership Conference brings together student athletes from universities around the country. We all share in the belief that we are leaders on our campus and can make changes in how student athletes act and are perceived on campus. My roommate here at the Coronado Springs Resort in Disney World(!!!), Jared is from Fort Valley State in Georgia( famous alumni football player Greg Lloyd) and was born in the Bahamas. Today, our morning guest speaker was the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He harped on how it is important to take a leadership role in the global society as well as on campus. He talked about how he freed the soldiers in Kosovo and his time in college as a QB for North Carolina A&T. In the afternoon we settled in to our color groups (mine is yellow) and talked about being a leader. Now its dinner time before we go to the River Country water park, so I'll have more to say tomorrow. Be safe and Go Bulldogs!!
NCAA Leadership Conference Journal - Entry #2
ORLANDO, Florida: Wednesday June 2: Today was the day everyone had been waiting for, the trip to the Disney Parks. There are four different parks, not counting the Blizzard Beach water park and Pleasure Island. My crew of people that I was around hit the Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios( Tower of Terror), and the Epcot Center during the afternoon and Pleasure Island at night. The most amazing thing besides the price of everything was the fact that all of us (twenty) got along together. Throughout the week there has been a sense of togetherness and belonging with all 300 of us regardless of our differences; it just gives us something to talk about.
Most of the lessons we learn have to with 5 steps. Encouraging the Heart, Enabling Others to Act, Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Shared Vision, and Modeling the Way. These steps are seen as the main aspects of leadership that we need to take to our campus when we return home. Tune in later for some more highlights, I'm late for another session. Be safe and GO DOGS!!
#24
NCAA Leadership Conference Journal Entry #3
Orlando, Florida: I didn't expect to do so much on this trip. We are up working with our small groups from 7 AM to 5 PM. With our two facilitators, we come up with ideas to improve our campus as athletes and students. We have breaks for snacks and the meals, but there hasn't been much time to get online. It is all worth it though. This experience is so amazing because you are meeting other strong minded and focused people that you have some things in common with. It has been uplifting for me to see the respect and pride that being a part of this conference has been given. Today, we did our group routine at the Wide World of Sports complex. We did pretty good getting everything together so quickly. But the Blue team had a really tight (means excellent) show too. Afterwards, we ran around doing activities that included the things we had learned. The problem was that it was 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Also, one of our group members was 3 hours late (overslept) and none of us really noticed.
In the afternoon, we listened to lectures about fostering relationships with the administration and our student athlete advisory group. It was hard for people to stay awake, but the questions we asked were good enough to make up for it. The stars of the afternoon were Nigel Burton from U. of Wash.(Football) and Jean Juene(football) from Florida State. They had an amazing discussion on religion on and around teams at state universities.
Tonight(now last night), we had our closing banquet. Everyone came with their best styles and cameras to cover the event. Our MC for the night was Diana Nyad. She works for Fox Sports and was a world class swimmer. She had a couple of funny stories and asked good questions of our round table group. Then, when the partyin' started, she stepped out there right with us, bouncin' and jumpin' to Master P and George Clinton. I won a little victory basket and took pictures with my group and the rest of the people I met here. I still need more film. After that, we went to the HOTTEST spot in the whole complex, Pleasure Island (take notes). This is where all of the clubs are at. There is the 70's club, House of Blues, BET Soundstage, the Beach, the Midway, and the movies are at (24 screens). I saw NBA players Shawn Bradley and Tim Thomas out there and Miguel Nunez (an actor in the movie LIFE ) at the House of Blues. It was fun during the middle of the week, so you know its off the hook (amazing) on the weekends. I'm finally in my room so its time to shower and sleep before the final goodbye tomorrow.
BE SAFE and GO DOGS!!
#24 Payton Williams
NCAA Leadership Conference Journal - Entry #4
ORLANDO, Florida:I had to type this after a super hectic 24 hours of learning and fun under the sun. Like I said last time, Thursday night with the banquet, party, going to the pool and Pleasure Island was amazing but it left little time for packing and waking up for Friday's closing events. On Friday, we had our last meeting with our small groups(Yell-O, BAY-BAY) and we picked out something that we were interested in affecting on our campuses. Everyone had amazing ideas with their schools, mine was finding even more ways that our student athletes could reach out to the Fresno-Central Valley area more. I don't have the knowledge yet, but my group gave me ideas on who to see and how to do something I don't do much, ask for help. So now I need to set up appointments with the people at our school with enough pull to get student athletes informed and more importantly, involved. We said our goodbyes and headed to the closing speech from ESPN's Robin Roberts.
After all of the things that have happened this week, there is just too much to say about the friends I made and things I did. I think I have met people and learned things I will carry with me forever. So I leave the world of e-mails and the internet, with this thought: "If you are leading and no one follows you, you are just taking a walk" **. Be safe and thanks for reading..
#24 Payton Williams
P.S.: Thank you to Walt Disney World-Coronado Springs(even though you forgot my luggage), NCAA, the facilitators( especially Henry Villegas, Jan Brown, and Darrell Gordon), all of my folks in the Yellow team, my roommate Jared Turnquest and all of the other members of the conference that I met for making it so special.
If you have any questions about the conference you can e-mail me at pmw11@yahoo.com or pmw11@csufresno.edu.
** Quote from Kathy Braun**
P. Williams #24
