May 2, 2024 | SPORTS | By Antonio Fernandez
Assistant coach of the Colorado College women’s basketball team Mai-Loni Henson created a platform for guest speakers to offer advice and business connections in order to open discussions about the highs and lows of their week in 2023. The Black Student Athlete (BSA) group at Colorado College fosters a dynamic setting that adapts to the ever-changing needs of its members.
Henson started the BSA in October 2023 with the help of colleagues and student-athletes. The group was established to provide a supportive and empowering environment for Black student-athletes.
Henson played Division I women’s basketball for the University of Washington and was a member of a Black student-athlete group there. When she came to Colorado College, she noticed the lack of diversity in the school and athletics department compared to UW.
“You kind of feel that sense of isolation a little bit. You’re forced to, for lack of a better word, transform your identity so that you can feel like you’re fitting in,” Henson told The Catalyst on Apr. 9. “Sometimes, you’re kind of forced to do it in order to not feel like an outsider.”
“I’ve been in a lot of situations, when I was in high school, when I was in college, there weren’t very many that looked like me,” Henson added. “It’s important for our Black student-athletes to feel like they can be themselves and have a place where they can be themselves…Ultimately why we wanted to do this.”
Henson proposed the idea of the BSA to Lesley Irvine, vice president and director of athletics at Colorado College. Irvine enthusiastically endorsed the idea. Henson then recruited Tarike Adams, assistant coach of the men’s basketball team, and Justine Square, executive director of Colorado College’s Ed Robson Arena, to get involved and act as advisors for the group.
Henson then reached out to Black student-athletes across various sports teams and found significant interest. The group started meeting regularly, and attendance and engagement grew with each meeting. There are currently 13 student-athletes and three facilitators for the BSA.
Shalom Prince ‘27 is a member of the women’s soccer team at Colorado College. Prince was previously a student-athlete at The University of Oklahoma, where she was part of a group called Women of Color and Athletics.
“I wanted to find something similar when I came to Colorado College,” Prince said.
As the only Black woman on her soccer team, Prince believes that the BSA offers a place to talk about challenges that Black student-athletes may face as minorities in predominantly white sports and at a predominantly white institution. She believes the BSA offers an additional layer of support and community, complimenting the support she already feels from her team.
“In the space of athletics, I think it’s really important to shine – have these Black athletes shine in ways that’s not just about their physical ability to do their sport and also recognize them as humans and people,” Prince said.
Henson and others involved in the BSA, like Square, aim to support student-athletes in multifaceted ways. In addition to meetings focused on open authentic conversations, the BSA plans to get involved in community outreach, help with networking opportunities, and send members to the Black Student Athlete Summit conference that is held every summer in Los Angeles, California.
After competing in track and field and later earning a scholarship for Division I basketball at Colorado State University, Square has constantly faced challenges and had to navigate being a woman of color in a predominantly white environment.
“Finding a place where you can be you and not have it picked apart all the time is more valuable than you realize,” Square said. “I don’t necessarily know that a lot of people understand that there isn’t that unless we purposefully create it.”
As a biracial woman who says she is often perceived as Black, Square pushed back against the notion that the BSA should be open to all student-athletes of color.
“I think that a lot of people will inadvertently ask, well, why can’t it be all students of color that aren’t Black? And it’s singularly because Black people have a very common and very traumatic experience,” Square said.
Kennedy Andrews, a sophomore on the men’s basketball team at Colorado College, credited Coach Adams with supporting the BSA and bringing it to the attention of the basketball team. Andrews explained that the BSA allows Black student-athletes to discuss situations they may encounter on a campus like Colorado College and how to cope with them.
“Maybe you’re used to not seeing people of your color, but here you can come together with what you’re used to and talk about what you’re going through,” Andrews said. “The cultural backgrounds that a lot of us share together. It’s important to talk about those things and have people that you can talk to, that you can feel like you’re at home with.”
The BSA has made strides in its early stages, such as beginning the process of becoming an official club known as the Black Student Athlete Association and involving members in recruiting prospective student-athletes of color. But those involved see the potential for more.
Square would like to see the development of specific programming, beyond just open conversation, that incorporates an educational component.
“I think that as we’ve started, we’ve had some just really authentic conversations,” Square said. “But if there’s a drive to educate ourselves, and whether that’s us educating the community or having other people educate us on stuff, I think that that’s a piece of it that probably needs to be kept because, again, we’re a higher education institution.”
Black student-athletes like Prince credit the weekly meetings and guest speakers for helping her gain insightful advice and connections in the business world.
Although the BSA was created following Prince’s soccer season, she is certain for herself and others that the group would have helped her grow as a person on and off the field.