TAMPA, July 13, 2022 – The University of South Florida Athletic Department is happy to announce the four officers for the 2022-23 Student-Athlete Advisory Comittee (SAAC).
 
Leading the committee as co-presidents are cross country/track and field's Ben Kailes (Jacksonville, Fla.) and volleyball's Makayla Washington (Tallahassee, Fla.). Joining Kailes and Washington as officers are softball's Vivian Ponn (Fort Myers, Fla.), who will serve as treasurer, football's Antonio Grier (Atlanta, Ga.), who is SAAC's diversity liason, and softball's Bailee Leistl (Valrico, Fla.), who will be secretary.
 
Sponsored by the athletic department, the student-athlete advisory committee consists of representatives from all of USF's sponsored intercollegiate teams. In addition to the named officers, representatives for the committee are selected by the team's coaches and USF Athletics administration. Among its responsibilities, SAAC is the student-athletes' platform to discuss issues and voice concerns on various topics, including NCAA legislation, student-athlete affairs and community involvement. The committee also works together to advocate for department regulations, institute new initiatives, and discuss ways to enhance the student-athlete experience at USF.
 
Kailes, a junior who competes for both the cross country and track and field teams, enters his first year as an officer for USF's SAAC. Last season, Kailes tallied a first-place finish for the cross-country team at the 2021 Fire Short Course Invitational and a second-place finish at the FLRunners.com Invitational.
 
Washington will be a redshirt sophomore for the upcoming 2022 volleyball season. Also in her first year as a USF SAAC officer, Washington served as the volleyball team's representative to the committee last academic year. Suffering an injury after the first match of the 2021 volleyball season, Washington led the team in hitting percentage and finished second on the team in kills and blocks in the 2020 season.
 
Ponn, a junior pitcher/utility for the softball team who has been a representative to SAAC since her freshman year, will also serve as the vice chair for the American Athletic Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which serves as the voice of the student-athletes who represent the conference's 12 member institutions. She claimed the softball team's designated player spot in the 2022 season, hitting .267 with five home runs and 24 RBIs while helping the team reach the NCAA regionals in Tallahassee.
 
Grier, a graduate student linebacker for the football team, was named the diversity liason for the second consecutive year, while also serving as a campus liason for the black student-athlete council. A two-time all-conference selection, Grier has helped lead the football team's defensive effort over the last four seasons and led the team with 92 tackles and eight tackles for loss last season.

Leistl is entering her fourth season with the softball program as an outfielder. In 2022, she played in 42 games and made two starts while scoring six runs. 
 
The 2022-23 athletic season kicks off in August with football, men and women's soccer, volleyball and men and women's cross country all competing in the fall.


About USF Athletics
USF Athletics currently sponsors 19 varsity men's and women's teams that compete in 11 different sports, 18 at the NCAA Division I level in the American Athletic Conference, which will expand to 21 teams with the recently announced additions of women's lacrosse (2023-24) and women's beach volleyball (2024-25). The Bulls' athletic program began in 1965 and completed its 55th season in 2020-21. Nearly 450 student-athletes train and compete in the athletic district located on the east end of the campus in Tampa, Fla. The Bulls have claimed 26 American Athletic Conference team titles since joining the conference in 2013, including seven trophies in the 2021 calendar year, and own 136 conference titles in department history. The Bulls have posted a combined annual grade-point average over 3.0 for more than seven straight years and have posted a program-record 15 straight semesters with a combined GPA over 3.0 as of the spring of 2022. USF has had over 500 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17. USF has had over 500 student-athletes earn their degree since 2016-17.
 
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– #GoBulls –