May 23, 2006

MILWAUKEE - Marquette University sophomore basketball player Daniel Fitzgerald has been selected as the school's representative to attend the 2006 NCAA Leadership Conference that will be held May 28-June 1 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Fitzgerald will be one of 352 student-athletes from NCAA institutions throughout the country attending the 10th annual conference.

The 2006 NCAA Leadership Conference provides student-athletes with a forum to openly discuss issues that may affect them on their campuses and in their communities, while also providing them with the opportunity to enhance their communication and leadership skill sets. The NCAA Leadership Conference also promotes better communication among student-athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty and communities. The conference consists of daily exercises and activities to help the student-athletes develop as individuals and as contributing members to a group.

During the leadership conference, student-athletes will discuss a variety of topics such as sportsmanship; public perceptions of student-athletes; conflict resolution; student-athlete mental health; and social responsibilities. They also will discuss division-specific issues, create dialogue surrounding possible solutions to division-specific issues, and discuss potential career direction. In addition to the speaker and discussion sessions, the student-athletes will participate in teambuilding initiative games at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex

Criteria for selection include the student-athletes' demonstrated ability and strong desire to be a leader and the student-athletes' potential to benefit significantly from a leadership development experience. This year there were 1,319 nominations from Divisions I, II and III institutions.

Fitzgerald played in all 31 games for the Golden Eagles during the 2005-06 campaign and averaged 5.3 points, 2.4 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game helping the team to an overall record of 20-11 and an appearance in the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2003.