Kendalia Turner - Georgia Court Softball
To be honest, I never thought about being a collegiate softball athlete. I was young when I started playing softball, so it just wasn't a part of my mentality. We wanted to go to high school and play, or we wanted to just go to tournaments in the summer, but the mentality of most girls playing softball in the Bahamas wasn’t, “Let’s go to college.”
The journey to high school was fun. It wasn’t easy to get recruited, but I also wasn't pressured into it. I ended up getting a scholarship to play softball in high school at the Lyndon Institute in Vermont. I started the college recruiting process in October of my senior year. Luckily, I was able to get recruited to go to Georgia Court.
The game in college was very different from the game in high school. You go from being an all-star or being one of the best on the team – to having to compete to play. When I came to college, I realized that everyone is an all-star, everyone's good. It's a lot of competition; the game is much faster. I had to adjust quickly.
I wasn't prepared or taught how to deal with racism, especially coming from a predominately Black nation. It was scary going to Vermont because I'd never faced racism before, and now I was facing it without my parents. I didn’t have family and friends to go to. Going away to school, I was prepared for peer pressure, doing my laundry, and making dinner, but I wasn't prepared for racism. I've had incidents where I couldn't cross the street because cars would intentionally drive slowly just to raise their middle finger at me. I had a cheeseburger thrown at the back of my head for sitting in a chair that was known to be someone else's at the cafe. Remarks were made. I would be stared at in the grocery stores. It was hard and I knew I had to do everything in my power to make my dreams come true because it certainly would not be handed to me on a platter. I went on to college and it didn't stop. I wanted to give up so many times. All of this happened, merely because of the color of my skin and not the person I was. I still get emotional about it. I understand that I should speak on it more so that others can speak up as well. I was fortunate and blessed enough to come into contact with a small group of persons that had my best interest at heart, that saw more than my color, and helped me overcome something that I never dreamed of facing. I also grew to speak up for myself and made my experience alright as I finished my collegiate career.
I know what Black athletes face and I can guarantee that there are terrible experiences out there but the fact that we succeed at what we do, racism does not prevail. Our work ethic, drive, and persistence is unmatched! I thank God for those experiences, it made me who I am today, but no athlete, no person should go through that, especially simply because of the color of their skin.
You endure so much failure in softball. You can never be perfect. If you fail six times out of ten, you’re probably in the Hall of Fame. It's always a constant battle with defeat, and you have to be able to be strong to say, “Well, I gotta move on,” or “I know what I need to fix.” You can't dwell. I owe the game because I learned a lot, and that was the biggest thing for me. And it also allowed me to touch a lot of people, influence a lot of people, mentor a lot of people.
I really do play for the younger kids; people that are coming up with dreams and they don't know they can do it, just like in the beginning I didn't even know it was possible. I would say to my younger self: Stay the course and don't give up because you can make it happen. It won't be easy, but it can be done. They say if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, so you're gonna go through some things, which can be scary. I think you just always have to look at the bright side and never become negative.
My hope is to get to the point where we genuinely understand the value of every athlete. We may say we do, but I want it to be genuine and pure. White, Hispanic, male, female, tall, short, I think we need to really understand that athletes are important. No matter how they look, no matter their size, or their gender. We have a lot of work to do. I do think progress has been made. I just hope we can move in unity, and create peace and love. As for athletes, it’s our responsibility to be the change we want to see, and I do think that education is key. Sometimes I'd see things happen and not really say anything about it. And so I realized that I can depend on myself. No one else is going to make the correction. I have to stand up and speak, because I want things to change.
