Marcellis Perkins finds new purpose as a leader on campus

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WORCESTER — Marcellis Perkins sits near the end of the bench at every Holy Cross men’s basketball home game, usually wearing black or grey pants and purple shirt or hoodie, and quietly but wholly supporting and encouraging his teammates.

Perkins, a senior, hasn’t played a minute the last two-plus seasons due to knee and shoulder injuries, which will also prevent him from getting into any games this year, but he is still very much part of the HC team.

“Marcellis is a great teammate,” Patrick Benzan, Perkins’ classmate, roommate and close friend said. “Even if he isn’t playing anymore he’s always there for you if you need someone to talk to about stuff that’s going on outside of basketball — friends, family, girls, stuff like that. He’s an old soul, so he has a lot of wisdom, especially for the younger guys on the team. I know they all look up to him and ask him for advice.”

Perkins, who grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia, came to Holy Cross to study sociology and play basketball. He was recruited by former HC coach Milan Brown.

Perkins, a philosophy minor with an Africana studies concentration, has excelled in the classroom — he was named to the Patriot League and ECAC academic honor rolls last year — and had a couple of cool moments on the court as a freshman, when he played in 18 games off the bench and had four points and a rebound in HC’s NCAA Tournament game against Oregon in 2016.

Injuries, though, derailed and eventually ended his playing career.

“Coming into this season I was in that weird place of wanting to continue to play,” Perkins said. “I didn’t want to feel like I quit, but I realized it was better for me to stop playing when it came to the question of long-term health and what that looked like for me.”

Over the last four years, Perkins, through his involvement with MOCA (Men of Color Athletes), the Black Student Union, the Male Involvement Coalition, the Odyssey first-year program and may other initiatives, has put his heart, soul, passion and principles into becoming a respected leader on campus and vital member and voice of the Holy Cross community.

“Once the injuries started to occur,” Perkins said, “I needed to find a space for myself. Basketball was no longer being that space for me. When I had things going on in my personal life, basketball was that refuge. ‘Ok, you can go put up some shots, go to practice and burn it off.’ When you’re injured, you can’t do that, so what do you do next? What spaces do you go to?

Perkins and senior Jehyve Floyd, who also rooms with Perkins, Benzan and junior Clayton Le Sann, are very involved with MOCA, a group in which student-athlete address and connect on important issues surrounding male student-athletes of color.

Perkins is senior adviser of the Black Student Union, co-chair of the Male Involvement Coalition. He started SOCA (Students Organized for Community Advocacy), a unified group for marginalized groups on campus.

In November, Perkins received the Planting the Seed Award, a Holy Cross community award, for all the work he has done on campus. He was the first student to receive the award, he said.

“He’s just such an inspiration to all of us,” Benzan said, “just to remind us while basketball is a big part of our lives and it takes up a lot of time, we’re so much more than basketball players and we can use our talents in so many ways. He’s just a walking example of that because he shows it’s possible to get good grades, be involved in the community and do a lot of other things beyond being a basketball player.”

Last month, Perkins was selected to speak at the Black Student-Athlete Summit in Austin, Texas.

The title of his speech was, “Because He Is Seen but Not Heard: How Creating Spaces for Black Male Athletes Contributes to Holistic Development.” He addressed a group of about 250 people.

“I looked at how institutions sometimes overemphasize the athletic identity,” Perkins said, “specifically in black males and really looking at the top generating sports of basketball and football. In a lot of institutions and in that case, if you look at creative element, social involvement, campus involvement and other factors, what we find is black males are only being held to athletic identity; they are not being developed holistically as individuals or college students. So if that’s the case, what can institutions, programs put in initiative-wise to counter that issue if they want to acknowledge it or care to address it?”

At Holy Cross, Perkins said, MOCA is an important forum.

“By creating that space,” he said, “we realized how much that space was needed and why that space was needed. I think Holy Cross is a little different because that issue is not necessarily a problem as it is in bigger institutions. When the majority of your black students are black male athletes, it does cause questions for concern and if that’s the case, why? If why, what do you do about that information?”

Perkins said he received a lot of good feedback after his presentation.

On Sunday nights, on the college’s radio station, WCHC 88.1 FM, Perkins hosts a radio show, “The Back Room,” which stands for “Being Aware, Conscious and Knowledgeable of the Room and Spaces.”

Perkins invites students to come on the air and pick the topic they want to talk about — relationships, education, policies, politics — whatever is on their mind. Perkins selects music that represents the conversation.

“It’s informal,” Perkins said. “We’re laughing and joking. A lot of students are able to experience something they usually don’t — talking on a radio show. It gives them the power to create platforms. On my own, I’ve seen students take that same mindset — ‘If the school doesn’t have what I want, I’m going to create it and curate it myself and people will feed into it and build it.’”

Perkins was a two-sport star (basketball, track) in high school and having to give up athletics in college wasn’t easy.

“During his life,” Benzan said, “a big part of his identity was as a basketball player. To have that shift I think that was hard for him, but I think one of the goals of his that he has talked to me about is being a man of service for others. He’s really let that goal guide him in his dealings at Holy Cross because he’s always asking, ‘How can I help somebody?’ or ‘How can I serve my community to make it a better place for the next Marcellis Perkins that comes along?’”

In addition to home games, Perkins supports his team at most practices.

“It was a weird transition to go to practice and no longer practice, but go to practice and just sit and watch,” Perkins said, “but the new role I had to step into has also been to my benefit.

“I don’t really say that much at practice,” Perkins said, “because I’m not on the court and my basketball resume here doesn’t speak so much, but I always tell them to keep working hard, be dedicated and give a good effort. That and just keeping the door open if guys want to come by the room, or if they need a ride somewhere. I’m always open for that.”

Perkins is looking at graduate schools, and after graduation from Holy Cross in May, he would like to pursue a master’s degree in higher education or sociology with plans of perhaps becoming a college professor.

Perkins’ four years at Holy Cross didn’t turn out the way he planned or expected from an athletics standpoint, but overall, they became so much more.

“In hindsight now, it’s always been more ups than downs,” Perkins said. “I definitely have a lot to be thankful for. Even with the injuries came a lot of lessons and new opportunities to grow in ways I never considered before (coming) here. I’m definitely grateful and I’ve definitely enjoyed my experience here and plan on enjoying this last semester.”

Thank you, CTP
 A fine article about a terrific Crusader

For  what it's worth, Jen Toland gave us permission to post Telegram articles and that;s good enough for me