When Prince of Sedona arrived in San Antonio in March for the first NCAA women’s game. basketball He was grateful to play again in the tournament after a long recovery from an injury.
But Prince, a red-shirted sophomore at the University of Oregon last season, noticed something that bothered him: the striking differences between the weight room setups, meals, and coronavirus testing available at the women’s tournament and what happened simultaneously in the men’s tournament. Indianapolis area.
Inspired to raise awareness about some of the inequalities women face in sport, Prince, 21, made a video compare the women’s “weight room” – a rack of dumbbells and some yoga mats – to the large, fully equipped gym that men can use. Shared on TikTok and Twitter.
The response was broader and faster than he had expected – 100,000 retweets in one night, phone calls to get televised on CBS, ABC’s “Good Morning America” and PBS, and national dialogue about how women are treated in athletics and beyond.
“I knew I had a pretty big platform to do this,” he said in a phone call from his childhood home in Liberty Hill, Texas, last month. “I was like, ‘I’m not as big as most other female basketball players, but I can do it. I have the strength to do that, and my mom always teaches me to protect myself and do my best.”
The prince said he wasn’t expecting this attention, but was ready for it, thanks to his mother’s advice and the grueling path he’s been riding for the past three years.
Prince’s mother, Tambra Prince, said in a phone call that she always repeats a tried-and-true phrase to her children: “Speak the truth, even if your voice trembles.”
Since the March episode, Sedona Prince has continued to draw attention to women’s sports on her social media profiles. He has TikTok 2.3 million followers; his twitter is over 42,800. In an effort to increase interest in women’s sports and the athletes who play them, it offers insights into the daily life of a Division I athlete and reinforces stories she felt were overlooked.
A recent example: the setup of the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament, where coaches denounced practice fields and some TV broadcasts.
“There’s a lot to document behind the scenes,” he said. “The reason I wanted to do this is because people invested in women’s basketball, and they did it this year. They were so caught up in the story and what was going on behind the scenes that they wanted to watch the game.”
It’s hard to say how much of a difference the weight room debate has made, but viewership for this year’s women’s championship game has increased significantly. 2021 women’s basketball finals attended by Stanford edged Pac-12 rival Arizona, most viewed since 2014 ESPN, which game publishes. All rounds increased viewership in 2019, when the previous tournament was last played.
As Oregon lost to Louisville in the round of 16, Prince, a 6ft-7 forward, was even happy to participate.
He broke his right shin and fibula while competing for the USA under-18 basketball team in Mexico City in August 2018. After returning from Mexico, he had a bar surgically placed in his leg and within a month he started lifting weights. Tambra Prince said she did exercises at the insistence of athletic trainers as she prepared for her freshman year at the University of Texas.
Michael Leslie, an orthopedic surgeon at Yale School of Medicine, who was not involved in Prince’s recovery, said in a phone interview that too much movement immediately after a fracture can prevent him from healing in alignment.
Prince’s leg was noticeably swollen, the pain continued, and in January 2019 he learned that his shinbone had not fully healed, leading him to another surgery in New York. There, doctors found that part of his bone had died and became infected. His mother said they prescribed a strong dose of antibiotics, taken through a catheter in her arm and a large vein over her heart. About two weeks after flying home, still undergoing treatment, Prince felt feverish, weak, and immobile.
“At 3 a.m., I woke up straight out of bed as his kidneys were shutting down – so straight out of bed, my heart was pounding,” said Tambra Prince. “And I heard: ‘He’s dying. To go.'”
Arriving at Prince’s home, less than an hour’s drive from his parents’ Liberty Hill home, his mother took him to the hospital, where they learned that the antibiotic had caused the toxins in his kidneys to rise to a level that could cause permanent illness. damage.
“If people knew how close he was to death, they would never criticize him if he missed a shot,” said Tambra Prince. “They used to say, ‘I’m watching a miracle.’”
F. Perry Wilson, a specialist in kidney injuries at Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in Prince’s recovery, said in a telephone interview that it was reasonable that a high dose of this antibiotic could cause a buildup of toxins and serious consequences. depending on when the patient seeks treatment.
A spokesperson for Texas’ athletic department declined to comment for this article, saying the department cannot comment on a student-athlete’s health.
Prince never played for Texas. He transferred to Oregon after freshman year and sat for a year due to NCAA transfer rules.
For Prince, his recovery evokes the mantra of “strong and strong” – a nod to the initials “SP” tattooed by both he and his mother. They’ve been partners in basketball since Prince started playing in fourth grade.
He’s always been tall: To an outsider, basketball may seem like a natural choice. But it didn’t always feel that way for the Princes.
“I was actually the worst player until I got into high school,” Sedona Prince said. “I was clumsy, tall, stupid.”
Prince said he was bullied a lot at a young age. Blood. St. in Winfield John’s College, her mother said she “made it her duty” to take Sedona to “high places”, including basketball and volleyball games, and told her daughter: “Look how it’s going. These women are beautiful. looking at them. Look how good it is to be tall.”
Tambra Prince always remembered her daughter as a child who stood up for others. And sometimes, just being stubborn: 3-year-old Sedona would insist on her clothes and tell her mother to “speak out of her hand.”
“My best friend said: ‘He’s going to get through his teen years early. It will be a breeze at 13,” said Tambra Prince. “When Sedona reached 13, I called my friend and said: ‘No, he just refined it. He’s recovered.’”
The mother and daughter said they lean on each other through injury, recovery and transfer. Sedona Prince aims to use past suffering to elevate those around him; it’s a quality recognized by those who share the field with him.
“Playing this year was very special for me because wow, I’ve been through all this and I can still play,” said Prince, who averaged 10.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in a game last season. “So I’m going to give my all every day because I never know what my last game or practice will be,” I said.
“How lucky am I to be coaching a young woman like her?” Oregon Coach Kelly Graves had this to say about Prince: Ducks beat Georgia In the last 32 rounds of the NCAA tournament. “He really is the whole package. Imagine the pressure on him to not only be a great actor but also be so outspoken. He was given a lot of attention and supported him. And that is not easy to do.”
Prince hopes to return to USA Basketball for the first time since his injury in 2018. one of 13 finalists Representing the USA at the 2021 FIBA AmeriCup in San Juan, PR in June; According to USA Basketball, the final 12-man roster will be determined at the training camp, which begins on Tuesday.
At the same time, Prince hopes to continue to expand his social media presence and speaks out about issues that transcend basketball – especially for athletes of color.
“It would be really special to be able to use my platform and talk to some of these Black athletes who feel underrepresented or discriminated against, to help them share and use their voices to help people who are discriminated against every day,” he said.