AUBURN, Ala. – Filling her notebook with networking nuggets and career advice, gymnast Cassie Stevens represented Auburn at the Women Leaders in Sports convention Oct. 8-10 in New Orleans.
"A great opportunity, great experience," Stevens said. "I learned a lot and met a lot of incredible women who are doing great things in the industry and leading the way."
The conference informed Stevens about the gamut of potential careers in sports, from coaching to administration to academic advising and development.
"How to navigate your career in the sports realm," she said. "Really good advice that you take with you going into a career in sports and in life in general."
Opening keynote speaker Carla Harris, a senior client adviser at Morgan Stanley, inspired Stevens with her talk titled "The Pearls of Intentional Leadership."
"I was taking so many notes," Stevens said. "It was really powerful and empowering."
The Southeastern Conference sponsored student-athletes from all 14 league institutions, including gymnasts from Auburn, Florida and Alabama.
"It was fun to catch up with them and talk," said Stevens, who left the leadership seminar with an appreciation for the resources and relationships Auburn provides. "It made me feel very privileged and honored to be an SEC student-athlete. I felt so blessed to be a part of Auburn University and the SEC and all the wonderful people we have here right at home. I'm so blessed to be here."
Working on her master's degree after graduating from Auburn University with a bachelor's in information systems management with a 4.0 GPA, Stevens plans to serve as a graduate assistant for Auburn gymnastics in 2024-25 after competing for a fifth season for the Tigers in 2024.
"I'm leaning toward possibly coaching," she said. "That remains to be seen. I'm excited to be a GA next year to get a better perspective behind the scenes in operations and coaching and what I might want to do."
After an All-America senior season in 2023, Stevens decided to remain on the Plains for season No. 5, an opportunity created when her freshman season ended early in 2020 because of the pandemic.
"It's definitely nice to have lots of years of experience to draw on," said Stevens, the reigning SEC vault champion. "It really does make a big difference. You don't fully grasp it until you have it."
Stevens and her seasoned teammates are teaching the team's newcomers what it takes to be an Auburn gymnast.
"With all the new people, you need good leadership to help establish the culture we want to build within the team and the goals we want to set," she said. "We set high standards and we want everyone to meet them but we do it in a way that is empathetic. You care about them as a person, but you want them to be the best person and athlete they can be."
The leadership convention gave Stevens a welcome break from training with a long season ahead.
"I came back refreshed," she said. "Reminding myself and my body that I need a little extra TLC. If you win January, you're probably not going to win April."
After concluding the 2023 season at the NCAA regional in Los Angeles, Stevens plans to add the lessons she learned at the convention to the knowledge she's acquired in a lifetime in the gym to lead the Tigers to a strong finish in 2024.
"They're going to see us being very driven," Stevens said. "The way last year ended left a bad taste in our mouth and we're not doing that again. We're going to come back, we're going to be better, we're going to be stronger. We're going to be ready to go."
Auburn gymnast Cassie Stevens at the Women Leaders in Sports convention
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer