Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were founded for the purpose of giving African-Americans the opportunity to get a higher education. Today, there are 105 HBCUs in the United States and of that group, only TWO institutions have swimming teams. North Carolina A&T State University of Greensboro, NC is one of them.

Shawn Hendrix has been coaching the Lady Aggies swimming team since the fall of 1999. She has coached her swimmers to not only be strong athletes, but also strong students, first. The team completes numerous hours of community service each year. Swimmers under Hendrix’s leadership were active in campus organizations such as student government, various honor societies, Greek letter sororities and others. Her swimmers have gone on to graduate with honors and become corporate business professionals, teachers, and entrepreneurs.

Swimming is not the most common sport in the African-American community or the MEAC conference, which is exactly the reason our team MUST remain. We are representing our race, where we often go unseen. To add, there are thousands of young swimmers in this country who train all their lives to attain swimming scholarships in hopes of getting a collegiate education. The two HBCUs with teams have provided that opportunity when it otherwise would not have be an option.

The Lady Aggies are the last of a dying breed and we cannot let them go without a fight. Help us save our program and continue to provide higher education for future Lady Aggie swimmers!

Support the petition here: http://www.change.org/petitions/north-carolina-a-t-state-university-women-s-swimming-team-prevent-the-discontinuation-of-nc-a-t-s-swimming-team