University of Oklahoma Athletics
Kasitati, Reedy Receive Sooner Oath Award
August 23, 2015 | Athletics
If the 2015-16 competition year is anything like the annual Sooner Oath ceremony held Sunday at the McCasland OU Field House, then it is going to be a great year to be a Sooner.
An annual ceremony held the night before classes begin on the Norman campus, the event is open to all Sooner student-athletes. Originally started as a convocation for student-athletes, it took a different shape in 2007. The OU student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC) created the Sooner Oath under the guidance of Sooner director of athletics Joe Castiglione in the spring of 2007. The first Sooner Oath awards were given in August of 2008.
Leading the ceremony was current SAAC president and thrower for the OU track and field team Jenny Carmichael. An energetic rap performed by another Sooner thrower, Chamaya Turner, got the event started with enthusiasm that led Castiglione to say that “I knew it was going to be hard to follow Chamaya.”
In brief comments, Castiglione welcomed the returning Sooners as well as the OU freshmen, promising that their experience would be “even better than all the recruiting speeches that got you here to campus.”
He also talked about Sooner MAGIC, explaining that it was more than the moments that led the term to be coined. “Sooner MAGIC is our culture – we are masterful, accountable, gracious, inclusive and competitive.”
He encouraged this year's Sooner student-athletes to invest in someone else – a teammate, another student, a community resident – to make their experience all it could be.
To emphasize the tenets of the oath, a Sooner Oath Award was created by SAAC. Each year at the Sooner Oath ceremony, the award is presented to a male and female student-athlete who best represent the qualities of the oath. Castiglione presented the 2015 awards to Nila Kasitati, a senior from Euless, Texas, from the Sooner football team and Julia Reedy, a redshirt junior from Dove Canyon, Calif., another thrower from the OU track and field team.
Kasitati thanked the OU faculty and staff for their help.
“I am not here by myself,” Kasitati explained. “The faculty and staff who have worked with me here have helped make my OU experience memorable and magic. I'm from a large family and family means everything to me. The support of people here at OU has made this place my home away from home.
“My coaches have pushed me beyond what I thought I could do,” he added. “I am certain when I leave here, I will be a greater person because of what I have experienced at OU.”
Reedy also thanked OU and the athletics department staff for their help and support.
“It truly is a blessing to call myself a Sooner,” she said. “There are three things that you have to do to live the oath. First, you must identify what you must do to reach your full potential. You have to make yourself someone others will be proud of and finally you need to inspire your peers and everyone who looks up to you. You have to lead with integrity. Make your time here count.”
After the presentation, OU President David L. Boren and senior associate athletics director Kenny Mossman took the stage for a brief Q and A. Boren praised the student-athletes for their leadership last spring during some troubling times on the Norman campus.
“I will never forget the kind of leadership that came from our student-athletes,” Boren added. “We will be judged by how we treat each other. True leaders are decisive, include others, work with others and most importantly, have a strong moral compass. You know what is right and what is wrong and you act based on that.”
He then thanked the student-athletes for sharing their energy with him as he enters his 21st year as the OU President. “I get my energy from you sharing your goals, your hopes and your spirit. OU is truly a special place. I want you to know how much it means that you are here.
“I think this is going to be the greatest year in Sooner Athletics. Let's make it happen.”
Kasitati and Reedy led the student-athletes in reciting the Sooner Oath before another Sooner student-athlete, Madison Ward of the Sooner volleyball team, led the group in the OU Chant as the program closed the way it opened, showcasing the talent of a Sooner student-athlete outside of competition.
