April 2, 2025
Wilberforce’s new ladies’s basketball coach, Rachel Naughton, introduced the partnership to fruition.
The basketball program at Wilberforce College has scored an historic partnership with AND1, which seeks to raise and spend money on Black faculty athletes.
AND1 will accomplice with the Ohio-based HBCU to focus on the ingrained connection between streetwear tradition, basketball, and Black youth. Now, the athletic model that catapulted street-ball aesthetics to the mainstream will merge its abilities with the athletes at these hubs of Black tradition.
Wilberforce’s ladies’s basketball coach, Rachel Naughton, helped convey the partnership with AND1 to fruition. The visionary, who helped flip round a earlier loss-filled season, linked with AND1 about this chance to uplift this group.
The HBCU grad spoke to BET Information concerning the influence of this deal and what it means for the way forward for HBCU athletics. She detailed how her One Aim One Youth nonprofit prompted these discussions to additional AND1’s attain on the underfunded college.
“AND1 has a wealthy historical past of growing Black leaders,” expressed Naughton. “I simply thought that the synergy was only a blessing. I used to be employed [as Wilberforce’s head women’s basketball coach] final June, after which right here we have been in August, proposing sponsorship to a significant model.”
Naughton took over the ladies’s basketball program after it earned solely two wins. With out a lot assist and even an assistant coach, Naughton overhauled this system, main it to a powerful 11 wins this previous season. Now, the AND1 partnership has additionally turn out to be the ultimate piece of the puzzle.
“I at all times revered AND1 and what they did for our group and for basketball,” she continued. “I simply really feel like I’m part of that motion now, as a result of now, we’re performing some massive issues on the HBCU degree. HBCUs are undervalued, we’re underdeveloped, we’re underfunded, and we’re completely underrepresented. It simply means rather a lot to me that AND1 is utilizing their platform and branding to raise our group.”
For Naughton, AND1 is important in constructing a “profitable tradition” on the college and throughout HBCUs. Her objective stays to encourage Black athletes to aspire for extra whereas at these storied establishments.
“The entire concept is simply fostering a profitable tradition, and I wish to leverage and use this partnership to draw new expertise, completely, as a result of they made our gamers really feel valued, and that was the important thing, that was the blessing,” she added.
In an period the place faculty gamers could be millionaires earlier than going “professional,” Naughton desires to degree the enjoying discipline and recruit gifted ballers to characterize HBCUs. With AND1 supporting her and her continued journey at Wilberforce, Naughton hopes to make long-lasting modifications whereas bringing extra wins to the varsity’s athletics program.
“I’m a competitor; I’m a pacesetter, and I delight myself on that. I’ll make a possibility occur, no matter that entails.”
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