By Will Conerly

After eight seasons of competing in athletics at Quincy University, Brendan Saak was not ready to say goodbye.

The dual sports athlete played four years of baseball and football for the Hawks, but graduated last year.

This year he is still involved with athletics, as a graduate assistant for the sports information office.

“I was here this summer playing for the Hannibal Hoots, and it was about midway through the summer, Ryan (Snyder), who I did an internship with last semester, asked if I wanted to come back as a graduate assistant,” Saak said.

Saak thought this was a good opportunity, so he made the decision to come back. This also provided Snyder, who is only in his second year at the position, valuable help. Snyder is the sports information director at QU.

“Last year he really had his hands full, when you’re asking one guy to cover 14 sports it gets really tough,” Saak said.

The addition of Saak to the athletic communication team will relieve the stress Snyder has. Saak will now cover half of the teams at QU.

Saak will assist with and cover baseball, men’s soccer, cross country, tennis, women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball.

This entails game write ups, live stats, and posting to the @QUHAWKS twitter account.

Saak built a brotherhood of teammates on the baseball and football teams in his four years. He has continued that trend in becoming acclimated to people in the department.

“The best part has been meeting all the new people,” Saak said.

Watching the games is something Saak hasn’t really gotten to experience at QU.

“I’m excited to start working the games, it will be really fun,” Saak said.

Saak has lots of prior knowledge of QU and its athletic teams.  Saak will work at QU until he finishes his graduate program.

“I would love to stay in sports information, only working here for a month or so I’ve really enjoyed it, keeping my nose to the ground and wherever I’m at in two years, and whatever opportunities I’m presented with I will take them as they come,” Saak said.

Plans and career goals usually come with surprises.

“The biggest surprise has been the workload. On paper, it doesn’t seem like that much but there is a lot of little things that go into it. Making sure other schools get your information in time for the games, when the Hawks are on the road you got to make sure you send them the right files, there is just a lot of little things you don’t really realize that go into it,” Saak said.

Saak is being taught by someone who has a full year under his belt.

“Snyder has done a great job easing me into the process which is nice,” Saak said.

The transition for Saak will be smoother than the one Snyder had.

“Saak has really done a great job of coming in and helping Ryan out,” Chandler Purcell, student assistant athletics intern, said.

Courtesy QU athletics

Saak said he wishes he’d gotten involved sooner with the athletic department.

“If you have a passion for sports, get involved, talk to someone in the athletic department and they will help you out,” Saak said.