Big East SAAC Joins Forces with HEADstrong Foundation

It was in a hotel lobby where Jordan Schmid first met Jeff Baxter. That’s where the relationship with the Big East SAAC and HEADstrong began.  

Jeff felt compelled to reach out to Jordan because he plays lacrosse at Marquette and it’s the first time Jeff had seen a lacrosse player in a position of authority. Jordan is the President of the Big East SAAC, the committee serves as the voice of student athletes on all kinds of institutional issues. 

In the summer of 2019 Jeff reached out to Jordan to help spread HEADstrong into other sports. 

“HEADstrong was founded by a student athlete. Nick Colleluori’s vision was to have athletes use their platform on the playing fields to support families affected by cancer. A partnership with SAAC makes sense for HEADstrong due to all of our fundraising work in NCAA athletics” said HEADstrong’s Director of Fundraising Jeff Baxter. 

Jordan plays midfield for Marquette Men’s Lacrosse team and is a redshirt sophomore. The team has participated in lacrosse mustache madness so he was already familiar with what HEADstrong was all about. 

The exercise/physiology major is very passionate about making sure his fellow students have the best experience possible during their 4 years of college, “We want student athletes to look back at their 4 or 5 years of competition and think those were the best years of my life.” Being President of the Big East SAAC is all about how they can make the conference better for future students.  

Jordan was able to get other teams on board with HEADstrong’s mission and set up some HEADstrong game days where teams will dawn the lime green and blue. During the fall, women’s soccer will have a HEADstrong game day, women’s volleyball in the winter and men’s lacrosse in the spring. 

“It’s really important to make others familiar with what HEADstrong is doing and spread it across to other sports and areas” remarked Jordan. 

9 out of 10 Big East schools will be participating in a HEADstrong game day during their respective sport’s season. Jordan knew that Marquette women’s soccer was a perfect fit since already heavily involved with fundraising and community service, he knew the girls would get behind HEADstrong’s mission.  “I brought it up to the team first before reaching out to Jeff, women’s soccer was super excited about it” recalled Schmid.  

Every school has the option to wear lime green laces for the game day and had the option to buy them if they were interested. 

“We are honored that Big East Saac has joined forces with the HEADstrong Foundation helping to further advance our mission of improving lives affected by cancer.  HEADstrong was born on Hofstra’s college campus by an NCAA student athlete, Big East Saac is setting an incredible example for other student athletic advisory committee’s to follow.  We are extremely grateful to Jordan Schmidt for his involvement” said HEADstrong President and Nick’s Mom, Cheryl Colleluori.

To learn more about the HEADstrong Foundation and how your school can help spread the mission please visit www.headstrong.org .