Who is Roshad Meeks?
On one hand, Meeks is student body president at Columbus High School and is involved with numerous activities, including the The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and the National Honor Society.
On the other, Meeks is an accomplished athlete who has made key contributions to the school’s football, boys basketball, and track and field programs for the past four years.
But Roshad Meeks isn’t defined by only one aspect of his life. Meeks’ ability to blend academics and athletics and to balance his time offers the best answer to the question. His proficiency in both areas also provides added insight and another award that helps solve the problem.
On Wednesday, the Mississippi High School Activities Association will present Meeks, Starkville High senior Haley Jenkins, and 14 other student-athletes from the state with the 18th annual Lindy Callahan Scholar-Athlete Awards. Meeks, who was nominated with classmate Kameron Corrothers, is believed to be the first Columbus High student-athlete to receive the honor.
“I was pretty excited to represent my school,” Meeks said. “I feel I have tried to represent my school well as student body president and at Columbus Municipal School District meetings. I feel I can represent myself and all Columbus High School has to offer among the best student-athletes in the state.”
Meeks, Jenkins, and the other students will be recognized at 11:30 Wednesday at a luncheon in Jackson. The award is one of the state’s most prestigious honors a student-athlete can achieve. Since its inception in 1996, the award is a $1,500 scholarship given to a graduating male senior and female senior in each of the MHSAA’s eight districts. Callahan was a longtime coach and administrator at Gulfport High and a former president of the MHSAA.
As part of his nomination for the award, Meeks had to complete a 500-word essay describing what bearing sports and academics have had on his life. He said Columbus High boys basketball coach Sammy Smith advised him to write what he felt, so he went back and remembered all of the character-building things Smith and his other coaches have done to influence his life.
“Sports really develops character. Not only teamwork because I feel that is obvious, but mental and physical strength and the power to endure,” said Meeks, who included quotes from Smith in his essay. “After talking to coach Smith, it did come easily. The problem I had was articulating the importance of the combination of academics and athletics. I feel both of them are important. I strive for super excellence in the classroom, but on the court it is a whole different ballgame, excuse the pun. I really feel school should advocate for those things more and that combination because we do want more well-rounded people. I feel the classroom rally can’t teach you as much character and the basketball court or the football, or what have you.”
Meeks feels the classroom is a forum that determines how well students take tests. He feels sports offer a setting that tests reactions and critical thinking, and with that comes leadership development. He feels he has been a leader in both areas and that he hasn’t lost sight of the impact both areas have had on him.
“I really feel as if now I am less fearful,” Meeks said. “A real big problem I have seen playing three sports is a lot of people are scared and trying to overcome fear. They are scared of failure, scared of success, scared of pushing themselves, and scared of opportunity. What those intangibles do is allow you to look forward while also looking backward. You can look forward and see the possibility of success, but you also can reflect on the failures you had to move forward.”
Smith has watched Meeks achieve a lot as he has matured. He praised Roshad’s parents for laying a foundation that has helped him strive to be the best he can be. He minimized his role in Meeks’ maturation and hopes he has helped him become even more responsible and disciplined in everything he does. He knows he saw that potential in Meeks in middle school and never wavered in pushing him to strive for the highest goals.
“He is not the best basketball player in the world, but the other intangibles he has, I wouldn’t trade him for the world,” Smith said. “He’s the epitome of what we want our kids, our basketball program, and our community to be about.”
Smith said Meeks’ award is the “biggest” one he has been affiliated with in his years of teaching. He said Meeks’ understanding of the bigger picture and the importance of academics set an example for younger players in the program to follow.
Columbus High football coach Tony Stanford and assistant football coach Jim Hamilton, who coached Meeks on the school’s track and field team for three years, agreed and said Meeks is one of the most mature young men they have had on their teams.
“I think the main thing is he knows what he wants to do. He wants to be a good student and to take part in as many of the activities as he can and he works hard at it,” Stanford said. “He wants to be a leader in the school, and I think that is what he has done as a senior.”
Said Hamilton, “When you talk to Roshad it is more like talking to a 30-year-old than an 18-year-old. Even when he was a 15-year-old, it was like you were talking to a 24- or a 25-year-old. I never had to worry about Roshad because he was one of those students you could tell to go do this and he would go do it. He is very self-motivated. That always has been the way he handles himself. When you talk to him, you never had to say, ‘Roshad, be quiet’ because he was listening to what I was saying, and always listening and paying attention to what was going on. He has a good attention span, and you have to to be able to do everything he does.”
In addition to his athletic pursuits, Meeks has interned for Columbus lawyer Scott Colom, he is a member of Columbus High’s Beta Club, and he has done community service work through the school and has worked in the mentoring program, Summer Success, for the past two years. He will attend Morehouse College, a Historically Black College and University, in Atlanta in the fall. He said he will try to extend his track and field and basketball careers while studying business and/or linguistics. He also will continue to learn about himself in an attempt to find out who is before he leaves his days as a student behind.
But Meeks’ learning won’t end there. His ability to meld one part of his life with the other reflects a maturity that could put him in position to accomplish all of his goals and to win plenty of more awards along the way.
If that happens, Meeks will look back and know everything he did to get to that point was worth it because each lesson played a part in helping him become the scholar-athlete he is today.
“I feel a sense of satisfaction in being able to balance both of them and excel at both of them,” Meeks said. “There have been a lot of times when I have had to sacrifice, but it is only sacrifice so I can become better.”
“I was talking to Jake Thomas, who is going to Mississippi State, about whether we should be students or whether we should be athletes. We can’t sacrifice our education, but what we could have done was not done IB and not challenge ourselves academically and excelled a lot further in athletics. But I just feel as if this award has given voice to the melding of a student-athlete. I think a lot of times you do have to make those decisions between athletics and academics. But for people who are able to balance them — and balance them successfully — they should be recognized. I was pretty excited about the melding.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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