Saline High Student Athletes Receive National Sport Psychology Honor

The National Athletic Advisory Council (NAAC) announced newly elected 2023 Council Members from a pool of thousands of candidates spanning the country, with Saline High Student-Athletes, Hunter Easton and Sophia Elston representing Michigan.

Sophomore Hunter Easton emerged as one of the top leaders from the class of 2025. He is the class of 2025 student council treasurer and a member of the High Five service club. Having played multiple sports since age 5, he recently switched to focus solely on baseball. Easton is primarily a catcher but also pitches and plays corner infield. As a catcher, he has won various All-Tournament awards, and was selected to the SEC Leadership Conference this year as a student athlete to represent Saline High School. Easton will also compete for USA Prime this summer with the goal of playing college baseball.

Despite making the top 5-6 player list as a freshman on the varsity golf team, Sophia Elston is primarily a fencer. She competes in several national tournaments each year with the epee and after fencing for almost seven years, is ranked 53rd in the 16 and under division nationally. In middle school, Elston was awarded the “Most Athletic Female,” and after a recent move to Michigan, joined the Plymouth Ann Arbor Fencing Academy, having previously competed with Escrime du Lac in South Bend Indiana. Sophia aspires to be an Olympic fencer with her golf coach raving about her ability to overcome adversity and communicate with teammates and coaches effectively while maintaining an extremely caring and compassionate attitude, being loved by all her teammates.

“Hunter and Sophia bring a drive and level of leadership that was unmatched from all other Michigan applicants. We are excited to hear their ideas and be on part of this journey with them,” said Catch23 Performance owner, Kaci Allen.

Election to the NAAC is the highest sport psychology honor available to high school athletes. Nomination to the NAAC is open to athletes from all sports across all 50-states and is based on a level of excellence in Athletics, Academics and Personal Character. Once nominated, Athletes must apply for consideration, complete an interview process and if moved through to the final round, identifying information is removed from applications, then voted on by a team comprised of collegiate/high school athletic directors, collegiate/professional athletes and coaches, executive coaches, sport psychology coaches and other leadership professionals.

The NAAC is crucial in providing feedback to help direct programming for T.E.A.M. (Training Elite Athletes Mentally) Varsity, the leading Sport Psychology program available to high school athletes. Members of T.E.A.M. Varsity have access to monthly live calls/workshops focused on sport psychology and developing and/or honing their own mental game as well as exercises, Q&As and more with leading experts.

“At Catch23, we work with top Athletes around the world, helping them develop and keep an unstoppable mental game. We want high school athletes from the smallest town to the largest competitive arena to have access to the same expert knowledge, techniques, and exercises on their own time, in a way that’s not been available, until now,” said Allen.

“T.E.A.M. Varsity has changed our Athlete’s entire trajectory. Last year, he almost quit playing altogether but just recently accepted a full 4-year scholarship to a division one school, a dream come true,” said a T.E.A.M. Varsity parent. T.E.A.M. Varsity is transforming how the mental game is approached, combining expert knowledge and practical applications that help athletes in all areas of life, in addition to sport performance.

To nominate an athlete for the National Athletic Advisory Council, visit www.NationalAthleticAdvisoryCouncil.com.

About Catch23 Performance

Catch23 Performance is headquartered in Nashville TN and works with Professional, Collegiate and High School Athletes around the world, building UNSTOPPABLE mental games. For more than two decades, Catch23 has worked with athletes at every level and the transitions between with unique training combining sport & performance psychology with clinical mental health counseling and has made sport psychology coaching accessible like never before.