The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and the Morehouse College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) collaborated to host a Youth Sports Symposium sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors. The symposium focused on educating youth on the diamond sports of baseball and softball and highlighted how both sports can create future opportunities.

Morehouse SAAC President and Bonner Scholar, Michael Sims, spent the past few weeks coordinating with his SAAC advisor and SIAC staff to identify guest speakers, coaches, current and former players from both sports and invited various community partners to have their youth participate. Kevin D. Chapman, Jr. '06, SAAC advisor and assistant director of the Bonner Office of Community Service expressed his satisfaction with the way scholars stepped up to run the event and prepare for it.

"I am particularly proud of our young men for stepping up and running with this opportunity when it was presented," Chapman said. "Morehouse has a long history of identifying needs and meeting them in a meaningful way for immediate and long-term impacts. The men of Morehouse are continuing this effort and have expressed interest to host future symposiums to highlight such as tennis, rugby, lacrosse, and volleyball."

Clark Atlanta University head softball coach Lawanda Pearson, MLB Network Broadcast Associate Kaelan Ashford-Jones '19, assistant coach of Morehouse's baseball team Kristopher Skinner '19 and Morehouse College senior Noah McMillan '21 were all speakers at the event. They all talked about their experiences in sports and how they created future opportunities for them. Through this event, Morehouse hopes to increase youth's exposure to these sports, and give them other options to remain healthy, earn scholarships and possibly enter a career related to the various sports.

"Creating platforms that are designed to inspire kids to get up and be active within their communities such as the SIAC Sports Symposium are invaluable, "Jones said. "By educating kids on the fundamentals of sports such as baseball and softball while also promoting the importance of simply being physically active, kids will have the opportunity to explore the things that they love and discover their true passions. As an alumnus of the college and the baseball program, I am happy to see Morehouse College remain at the forefront of such community engagement efforts and thank my younger brothers for organizing and hosting today's virtual event."

Staff from Dunbar Elementary School, Principal Ernest Sessoms, school counselor Anita Bouie and PE teacher Samuel Hill and many of their students were on the call and asked great questions. Some of the kids expressed their excitement to see Jones, as he volunteered at Dunbar elementary school for two years as a mentor and made many connections.
Morehouse baseball fun facts:

Did you know that baseball was the first sport at the college? 
Alumnus, Donn Clendenon, who was mentored by Martin Luther King, played baseball at Morehouse and for the New York Mets. He eventually won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award by hitting three home runs to help lead the team known as the Miracle Mets to an upset victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series.