Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State Participates in APPLE Conference
2/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
Feb. 4, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. - On the weekend of Jan. 16-18, representatives from 55 schools around the country came together in sunny Southern California to take part in a program directed at broadening awareness and knowledge of substance abuse prevention and the promotion of student-athletes health and wellness.
The APPLE Conferences, the University of Virginia-led award-winning program, has come together every year for the past 18 years to help advisors and students alike become more knowledgeable about substance abuse prevention and how to keep student-athletes healthy throughout the year. Originally based only on the east coast The APPLE Conferences, due to the extreme wide-spread popularity, has expanded and now holds an event every year in San Diego, Calif., allowing more west coast based schools to benefit from its teachings.
The three-day event uses a plethora of guest speakers from participating Universities that have put the APPLE program into effect and have seen substantial improvement throughout their schools sports program. APPLE also uses unique teaching tactics including "the APPLE model," which slices an apple up into seven pieces breaking down the main points of the program. The seven "slices," or steps to success include; educating, referral and counseling, drug testing, expectations and attitudes, policies, sanctioning and finally recruitment practice.
This year Fresno State, which prides itself in being a school that has very few cases of substance abuse, sent five representatives; academic advisor Quinton Freeman, athletic trainer Elise Kramer, strength and conditioning coach Daisy Gaynor, sophomore football strong safety Lorne Bell and sophomore soccer midfielder Megan Ashjian; to take part in the event and bring back the knowledge gained to hopefully spread amongst the rest of Fresno States student-athletes.
Ashjian had nothing but good things to say about the APPLE Conferences. "It was a great learning experience. We brought back a lot of helpful information and hopefully we can expand on it and help all of our student athletes and teams."
Other attendees shared the good praises of the APPLE Conferences. "I was surprised with how big the event actually was," Freeman said. "It was a great experience. We went down there not knowing what to expect but we came back more knowledgeable, and what we learned will really allow us to achieve our main goal, which is to help out our student-athletes as much as possible."
"Join the State - Fresno State!" - The Fresno State Lacrosse team hosts their first ever match on Saturday, February 7 as they take on the Cal Bears at 1:00 pm at Bulldog Stadium. For more information visit gobulldogs.com.
