Smiles were had by all Monday night inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse.
It was a significant night for many reasons. Milligan College had the opportunity to highlight some of the region’s top basketball talent while promoting student diversity thanks to the college’s Goah Diversity Scholars to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day inside the gymnasium. Schools on display during the evening included Rabun Gap, Asheville Christian and Mountain Mission.
“This is something we’ve been talking about wanting to do for awhile now,” Milligan men’s head basketball coach Bill Robinson said. “What’s great is to have great friends out there in the basketball world at the high school level to be able to get an event like this put together. This has been a really fun process. We’ve gotten a chance to know the guys from each of the schools … being able to have such great talent on our campus, they get a chance to see what Milligan’s about and we get a chance to see the talent on display.
“And having this to go along with celebrating MLK Day is fantastic,” Robinson said. “To have our Goah students get involved like this has been a really neat thing for everybody. It’s great to see the diversity of our campus. We get to see the involvement we have with some of our guys. They’re friends with Goah students and get a chance to spend time together tonight. We want to do whatever we can to make sure our students have a great experience.”
The event came together with ease and it was exciting to see, Mark Fox, vice president for athletics and student development, said in a release issued by Milligan College.
“We’re excited to host these programs and their student-athletes at Milligan,” Fox said. “This gives us a chance to provide an opportunity for our local community to see national-level high school teams compete. To be able to do this in conjunction with our campus celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an additional benefit.”
Rachel Owens, admissions counselor at Milligan, was busy throughout the evening. Goah Diversity Scholars had different booths set up inside Steve Lacy Fieldhouse promoting their culture. Attendees had a chance to learn firsthand what each culture is about while taking part in refreshments and having a chance to receive special arts and crafts. The students also had special activities during halftime of each game to help encourage involvement from attendees.
“This is really the first year we’ve done this,” Owens said. “We always wanted to do some sort of event for MLK Day. We thought this was a great opportunity to mix the two different departments on campus. Goah Diversity Scholars are given a scholarship to Milligan to help display their leadership on campus and share their culture with other students and the community.”
The college encouraged their students to participate in pre-established service events throughout the community on MLK Day. Along with Monday’s event, the college is cosponsoring Eastman’s Black History Month in February.
With multiple cultures on display, it was a family atmosphere and about coming together during the night. The atmosphere even lingered on the benches. Mountain Mission boasts a roster with multiple Division I prospects and two recent graduates, Ike Ndule and David Onuh, are part of the Milligan men’s basketball team.
“This is cool for them too,” Robinson said. “We never really let anybody use our locker rooms, it’s almost a policy we have in place to keep it safe for our own team. But we opened it up to Mountain Mission. I had a chance to meet with Mountain Mission head coach Al Wilson today. I’ve been friendd with Jared Miller, with Mountain Mission, for awhile now and he really was the person that helped get the event together.”
Promoting togetherness on the hardwood proved to be a success during the night, and Owens added she’s excited to see what the future holds.
“We weren’t really sure how the support was going to be with this being our first-ever event,” she said with a laugh. “With these being high school games, it is great to reach people within the community. We also have current students here showing support, it’s great. We’re excited to see how great this has been this year and we’re looking forward to growing it and making it a bigger event for the years to come.”