Among the aspects of college life that have been disrupted amid the COVID-19 pandemic is athletics. Though the future of college athletics remains unclear, Diverse celebrated college athletes of color and explored how COVID-19 has impacted college sports through two recent online events.
On May 28, Diverse held a virtual ceremony for the 2020 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars Awards, an annual program honoring minority students who have excelled in sports, academics and community service. This year, the first place winners were football player Rodrigo Blankenship, a recent graduate of University of Georgia, and swimmer Raena Eldridge, a senior at Texas A&M University. They were chosen from more than 700 nominees.
“The title of student athlete is respected and admired and has led to so many opportunities because of the weight it holds in the eyes of employers, graduate schools and professional schools,” Eldridge said, addressing a crowd on Zoom. “What makes an athlete great is not talent and force of will but a commitment to excellence, a quality that does not confine itself to any single facet of life.”
Alongside the awardees themselves, speakers included Johnnie Ashe, brother of tennis player Arthur Ashe Jr., Niya Blair Hackworth, director of inclusion at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and Felicia Martin, vice president of the NCAA Eligibility Center.
Martin described student athletes of color as a part of a generation of “change makers.”
“Be brave enough to be yourself,” she said. “Embrace who you are. … Focus on the passions and strengths you bring to the table, no matter where you’re seated.”
A day earlier, Diverse Editor-at-Large Dr. Jamal Watson hosted an online panel discussion about what the coronavirus means for the future of college athletics.
