Four Spiders pursuing graduate degrees during 2020-21 season
10/1/2020
Even months before it officially starts, we already know that little about the 2020-21 college basketball season will be familiar. Condensed schedules. Quieter arenas. Less travel. Face masks and COVID tests.
Every team and player in Division I will be adjusting to a new basketball reality this season. For nearly a quarter of the Richmond men’s basketball team, this year comes with a new reality in the classroom as well.
The Spiders 2020-21 roster Includes four players who graduated from Richmond earlier this year and are now pursuing Master’s degrees at the school, an unprecedented number according to Courtney Hughes, Richmond’s Assistant Director of Athletics for Academic Support & Civic Engagement.
“It’s the first time that we’ve ever had four graduate student-athletes on a men’s basketball roster at one time,” said Hughes, who joined Richmond’s Athletics department in 2007 and completed her undergraduate degree at Richmond in 2006. “I don’t ever remember it happening. With the climate in terms of the transfer market I think it’s even more unique that each of these guys are already graduates of the University of Richmond and chose to continue their education here.”
Nick Sherod is pursuing a Master’s of Teaching degree with a focus on Secondary Education with the extra year of eligibility he received from a medical redshirt after injuring his knee during the 2018-19 season. Jordan Gaitley in working towards a Master’s of Liberal Arts degree after completing his undergraduate coursework in three years. Blake Francis completed his undergraduate degree earlier this year after redshirting during the 2018-19 season following his transfer form Wagner College. He is enrolled in the Master’s of Human Resources Management program at Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies along with teammate Grant Golden, who is in his fifth year at Richmond after he received a medical redshirt following a heart procedure during the 2016-17 season.
“I think it really says something about the health of the academic experience here at Richmond,” said Hughes, “as well the people at Richmond that make these positive experiences possible for our guys. It speaks to the type of student-athlete that these four guys are and that we have here at Richmond.”
The four Spiders currently pursuing Master’s degrees find themselves in a drastically different academic environment as they prepare for their final season on the Richmond roster, with three-hour classes that are scheduled at night to accommodate students who might work full-time during the day.
“You’re kind of getting a taste of the real world a little bit,” said Francis. Golden believes that grad school has helped him appreciate the simplicity of his current situation. “You’ve got people that are working jobs every day. People that have kids and bills to pay,” said Golden of his new classmates. “Their lives are completely different than ours, so it definitely makes you just appreciate a little more that you’re here and you get to just play basketball every day and go to class and work towards a degree when some of your classmates have real things to worry about.”
Jordan Gaitley, who is pursuing a Master’s of Liberal Arts degree after completing his undergraduate work in three years, said that the biggest difference so far between undergraduate and graduate programs isn’t external, but internal. “Everything is up to me,” said Gaitley. “It’s definitely different not having the accountability of actually having to go to class every day. Everything is online. Everything is if I want to do it or not. So I have to be accountable to myself.”
For Sherod, the extra year of eligibility he received after his knee injury gave him more time to ponder his post-basketball options, resulting in a shift away from studying journalism to a path that will allow him to earn a graduate degree and his certification to teach secondary education. Just weeks into his graduate program, he’s convinced he made the right choice.
“I think it’s going to help me a lot,” said Sherod of his new course of study. “I think it’s already given me a lot of tools and a lot of things that are helping me as I look forward to my future, whether it be playing or teaching or education or something like that.”
And while Sherod’s injury cost him 26 games of his junior season and necessitated more than nine months of rehab, having the chance to leave Richmond with a Master’s degree represents a silver lining.
“When it first happened, this is one of the things I was excited about: having a chance to play with these guys for another year but also to achieve some of my academic goals,” said Sherod. “I think that when you come to college you don’t really expect to leave with two degrees so the opportunity to do that is super exciting.”
Francis, who has said he chose to transfer to Richmond in part because of the school’s academic rigor, is driven by the chance to achieve a family first. “Just getting one degree from Richmond is something that is spectacular to me,” said Francis. “But getting a Master’s degree is something that’s very important to me as well. My Dad talks to me about it all the time. I could be the first in my family to get a Master’s degree. So I feel like me doing this would be not only good for me but good for my entire family.”
“They’re prepared. They’re adults. And that’s the way that I treat them, because they’re not undergraduate students anymore. Our focus shifts to what Richmond has prepared them for,” said Hughes.
“Richmond pushes you out of your comfort zone in so many ways that you know it’s going to fully prepare them for their next endeavor. School is going to end one day and then basketball will also end one day, so we want them to be fully prepared to stand on their own two feet when that day comes.”
Two feet – one for each degree.
