After battling back from a knee injury that sidelined him for all of 2022-23, Hawai'i Hilo Men's Soccer's David Mayser wrapped up his Vulcan career this past fall after helping the team post a 10-6 record, marking just the third time in program history they've reached double-digit wins.
Mayser traveled 7,000 miles away from his hometown of Munich, Germany, arriving in fall 2020 and has transitioned through three different Vulcans Men's Soccer head coaches. He, along with many of the current student-athletes, have overcome the COVID-19 pandemic as well as going from practicing and playing all over town to now having an all-turf on-campus field.
Since spring 2022, Mayser has also served as one of two representatives from the Pacific West Conference on the NCAA Division II National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Below are some excerpts from Mayser's interview.
Change in Vulcans Men's Soccer Program:
I think we came a long way when I came as a freshman. We didn't have a field, we had to train early in the morning like we used to warm up when like not even the sun was up yet. Now we have like probably one of the best facilities in the PacWest. We have a nice field, we have a good team, a good environment here that we created over the last few years, and yeah I'm just happy to be like part of that change ... It was a journey, definitely, and we kept improving and now this season it just showed that we can compete against the Cali schools. We almost made it to the tournament so that's that's a pretty pretty big deal ... even though for me, personally, it was hard to to get back on the field this semester — I wished I would have had more playing time; would have been healthy right from the beginning and not struggle with my knee, but in the end, I rather take that season than a season where I play every every game 90 minutes but lose because I'm part of something bigger. Part of something that succeeds and creates like a legacy for future generations.
NCAA Division II SAAC:
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in 2021 in the fall, and you know, there I really got to know what it means to be on SAAC, how important it is what everybody on SAAC is doing because basically we talk about college athletics and there are people who decide what's going on — what are the rules ... every student-athlete is basically the reason why we have the NCAA — why we compete ... It's very important to to have a voice on the national level as a student-athlete because in the end, all the decisions that are being made are being made for us or against us, and if it's not in favor of us — it might benefit other people, but in the end, college athletics should be always about the student-athletes ... We as a group, National SAAC, we are 26 people, 23 conferences and three at-large representatives. We represent over 120,000 student-athletes ... it's great to be to be a part of that and to have a voice — people who make up the rules want to hear our opinion on things and they want to see what student-athletes think about NIL, what student-athletes think about the revenue share model that's kind of up in the air right now ... it not only matters for you right now, but it especially will matter for the generations to come.
