Huntingdon’s Terry hoping to make a difference and raise awareness

This week is NCAA Division III Week and member institutions across the country are celebrating the inaugural event. 

Division III Week, which began Monday and runs through Sunday, is intended to recognize the academic and athletic accomplishments as well as the campus leadership and community service efforts of Division III student-athletes.

As part of Huntingdon College's participation in Division III Week, six student-athletes are being featured this week. Huntingdon junior Stacy Terry is today's featured student-athlete.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Huntingdon junior Stacy Terry watched the video and was stunned.

The video in question dealt with bullying and its connection with youth suicide.

Once Terry's initial shock wore off, he became motivated to try and do something about it. With the help of his soccer teammate Nick Alverson, Terry hopes College Students Against Bullying will be an active organization on the Huntingdon campus next fall.

"We're trying to get it started. We've already filed the paper work but we can't start it until next year," Terry said. "When we watched the video, it was about a little boy who had been bullied and wanted to kill himself. He didn't kill himself, but they say 80 percent of suicides involving children between the ages of 8-13 are a result of bullying. We want to try and prevent that."

Terry said he and Alverson began researching the topic during the week of finals last semester. He hopes CSAB can reach out to kids in elementary school and middle school and make a difference.

"We want to go around to the schools and teach kids the harms of bullying," Terry said. "We've pitched an idea to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which would have a representative from each sport be involved. We'd rotate and have one person go talk one week and another person talk the following week. We want to try and reach the kids at a young age before it becomes an issue for them."

Being involved is part of who Terry is. During his three years at Huntingdon, Terry has tried to take an active role and be involved on the Huntingdon campus. He is a Huntingdon Ambassador and is in his third year as a SAAC representative.

He's also involved in two sports. He is a three-year player for the men's soccer team and was All-Conference as a sophomore. He is a two-year player in tennis and was selected to the Great South Athletic Conference All-Freshman team in 2010. An injury forced him to miss his sophomore season of tennis.

Terry, who played six sports at Tuscaloosa County High School, said being able to get an education, be involved on campus and play multiple sports has just added to his college experience.

"I really don't think I would have had as much fun just playing one sport," Terry said. "Being part of two different teams has been a great experience. The players on each team and the people you meet playing each sport are completely different. That's just made it more fun."

Name: Stacy Terry

Year: Senior

Major: Biology

Hometown: Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Sport: Men's soccer and tennis

Athletic accomplishments: Terry is a three-year player for Huntingdon's men's soccer team and a two-year player for the men's tennis team. He was All-Conference in soccer as a sophomore and made the Great South Athletic Conference All-Freshman tennis team in 2010. He has been part of two GSAC tournament runner-up teams (soccer in 2011 and tennis in 2010). Terry has been chosen to play in the National Premiere Soccer League this summer and will play for the Madison 56ers.

Academic achievements: Terry has been on the Dean's List. In addition to majoring in Biology, Terry's minor is in Spanish.

Campus Activities: Terry is a Huntingdon Ambassador and is in his third year as a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative. Terry and soccer teammate Nick Alverson are in the process of forming a new organization at Huntingdon – CSAB (College Students Against Bullying) – which they hope will start during the 2012-13 school year.