First Turban NCAA Player!

Freshman Darsh Preet Singh is the first turbaned Sikh toplay NCAA ball. It wasn’t easy for Singh to overcome theracism and win the right to play with his turban on with thehelp of his coaches and players at Trinity, an NCAA schoolin the US. Starting February 26, the SmithsonianInstitution will be displaying the jersey of Singh, the firstturbaned Sikh American to play basketball for an NCAAprogram. When asked what that honours means to him,Singh said: “Honestly, all of this is still hard for me tobelieve. It still feels like a dream sometimes. In someways, I feel like I haven’t done anything special. I just likedto play basketball and made the college team. It’s not thatdifferent than so many of my friends I grew up with. On theother hand, I realize that I have overcome a number ofchallenges and that this is a huge step for my community.From that perspective I feel really blessed to have hadsuch amazing opportunities and experiences, and I feelespecially grateful when young children thank me for providinginspiration and blazing the trail. That’s really specialto me.”