While Okanlami may not be able to stumble upon every prospective athlete across the nation, Michigan must find a way to separate itself from colleges like Alabama, which has a multi-million dollar facility dedicated to adaptive sports, or Illinois and its rich adaptive sports history.
In June, amid the social uprisings that emerged in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Sunstrum decided that the UMSocial should give a platform to students’ voices. A new podcast, called “Conversations for Change,” was born.
Generally, when people first read about an initiative like expanding access to adaptive sports and fitness for athletes with disabilities, most grasp the importance of the cause.
Would people continue to speak with counselors and therapists or meet with doctors? Or would valuable appointments and check-ups slip through the cracks?
Once again, student-athlete communities faced the same questions as others.
On Jan. 16 — three days before classes — the team was rushed out of their home in the Michigan Sports Coliseum. Signs, boxing rings, trophies, equipment shelves and punching bags were all stripped away and loaded onto moving trucks.
Forty-five years of traditions thrown out in just one afternoon.
The two-week quarantine period for all of Michigan Athletics could have been avoided. Instead, it became a necessity.
The Michigan rowing team's Ally Eggleton is doing as much as she can to help student-athletes prioritize their mental health now and always.
It’s really easy for those who felt that the 2020 football season shouldn’t be played to look at the COVID-19 outbreak currently engulfing the Michigan football team with a sense of vindication.
Aside from having reasons to believe they would be successful this winter sports season, they are all in a state of limbo. They each have no information on a schedule for their upcoming seasons, and they all are classified as non-revenue sports.
It is time for that lack of information to change.
As of now, only three teams are in Ann Arbor and conducting normal practices — men’s basketball, women’s basketball and ice hockey.