Reiss' final two years at Rosewood will be busy

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 23, 2013 1:49 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Volunteering as an assistant coach, participating as a two-sport letterman and learning the discipline of Junior ROTC keeps Evan Reiss a busy person on the Rosewood High School campus these days.

He's about to get even busier.

The junior is one of 16 student-athletes statewide who have been selected to serve a two-year term on the N.C. High School Athletic Association Student-Athlete Advisory Council. The small group acts as a voice between the Association and 200,000 student-athletes in North Carolina.

But there's more to it.

Reiss and his fellow council members attended a summer retreat that outlined their responsibilities for the next two calendar school years. Viewed as role models by their peers, they're expected to lead by example, work with students in a variety of social groups and exemplify character, integrity, citizenship and respect in everything they do in and outside the classroom.

"Going to that retreat where they detail all of the stuff you have to do was 'wow, this is going to be a lot of work' and I hadn't realized it until that point," Reiss said. "There are a lot of responsibilities and duties. As the council, when something comes up that the Association wants to put in like spring football, which was a topic we discussed, we give our point of view on why it would be good, why it would be bad.

"We learned about ways that you can help your community and how it can benefit from it."

Reiss became intrigued with Special Olympics Project Unify during the retreat.

The organization created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver uses sports and education programs that allows special needs students to partner with student-athletes at their respective schools. There is no such organization in Wayne County that offers the fostering of respect, dignity and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities.

The lack of such a program stunned Reiss.

"I had never heard of it ... felt the need that we had to have it," Reiss said. "It's a really cool program (and) sounds like a lot of fun to do. It doesn't have to be just within your school. We can get all of the schools in Wayne County involved in the games, which would be a two-year project ... a pretty big one."

Reiss plans to launch his project once school begins.

He'll also have to help host the NCHSAA Student Leadership Conference, volunteer at one NCHSAA state championship event, attend four quarterly meetings and meet several other council requirements. There's also football and wrestling, and setting aside the time needed to complete school assignments.

"During football season, I will have my weekends to plan a little bit," said, who was nominated for the council by Fellowship of Christian Athletes ... Jennifer Cochran and athletics director/head varsity football coach Robert Britt.

"But wrestling season is really when it's going to get difficult for me. I'm still trying to plan all of that, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to work it out. There will be some long weekends and nights."