Student Athletes

When the Ivy League canceled their season Thursday night, changing their year and the trajectory of their basketball careers, Kayla Padilla and Mark Jackson knew it was what was best for the team, as team players. Even off the court, they remain worth talking about.

Student athletes Mark Jackson, a Wharton senior, and Kayla Padilla, a Wharton sophomore, were profiled for their basketball careers at Penn.

Athletics Director M. Grace Calhoun spoke about the NCAA’s decision to make Election Day an official day off. “We know it represented the voice of student-athletes across the country who continue to express a desire to increase their civic engagement at local, state, and federal levels,” she said.

Rajat Deo of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about cardiology health issues in student athletes. “Forget about COVID,” he said. “If you have an elite college athlete or even if you have a high school athlete on the JV swimming team with some degree of cardiac involvement, are you going to let that person compete?”

M. Grace Calhoun, Athletics director and NCAA Division I council chair, said the NCCA is working to create flexibility for student athletes whose seasons were negatively affected by the pandemic. “Every day things are changing in college sport, and we want to be as responsive as possible,” she said.

Meredith Schamun, the newly hired head women’s volleyball coach, was interviewed about coaching during the pandemic.