BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – the protest led by the Bucks resulted in widespread postponements of games across the pro sports world this week. But given the fact that college sports largely remain on hiatus due to the Coronavirus, we have not seen any similar demonstrations in our local sports scene. I spoke with Skyler Nash earlier this week, a member of the UVM men’s basketball program and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. He says that whenever the Cats can safely return to action, they won’t hesitate to use their platform to encourage positive change.

“It may not be as many eyes as the NBA, but people pay attention to what we do and then they pay attention to what we say,” Nash said. “Whether that’s on the court during media or off the court in your communities around your school, there’s a lot of eyes on us for better or for worse and so there is a responsibility on us, if we’re playing, to continue to stay vigilant. Both on the COVID side of things, to continue to echo the right things to do and continue to try to be leaders in that sense, but also with racial and social justice to use our platforms to speak out. You know, not all guys are going to be comfortable getting up in front of a bunch of cameras and doing an interview, and that’s ok. You have some people that maybe better at that than other people. But whether it’s wearing something or trying to have conversations with other student athletes, getting together across all different types of sports as athletes and departments, we can’t think that ‘Oh, the professional athletes are handling that and we’re all good.’ We do have a part to play in that I think and I know that UVM and UVM athletics is not gonna take that lightly at all.”

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