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Episode: 029 \u201cBeing a Trailblazer: Basketball, HBCUs, and Aggie Pride\u201d \nAirdate: May 3, 2021\nLength: 1:17:32\nGuests: Coach Will Jones\nCoach Will Jones, head basketball coach at North Carolina A&T State University has a story I that I believe will inspire anyone to not easily give up on their pursuits and to trust God above all. Coach Jones reflects and shares about being a basketball player in high school in the Lowcountry of South Carolina to a Division 1 college basketball player at South Carolina State University to his journey in the coaching ranks. He will encourage you in your path with his journey filled with patience and perseverance as he made his way from graduate assistant to assistant coach to head coach.\nAll the while, as he shares, he wanted to be a trailblazer like those legendary Black coaches that came before him. His faith in God\u2019s plan for his life anchored him especially during the hard, uncertain times.\nBut the vision is clear. A&T begins a new chapter as another Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to leave the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), a conference exclusively consisting of Black Universities, to play in the Big South Conference against Predominately White Institutions (PWI\u2019s). Just like A&T has left its championship mark in the MEAC, he wants to represent HBCUs and make a lasting impression on the Big South.\nListen to Coach Jones as he enlightens us on the unique challenges that Black coaches face in the NCAA ranks and what he and other Black coaches are doing to weather that storm.\n____________\nPhil Allen, Jr (http://www.philallenjr.com). is a Los Angeles-based pastor, social justice activist, filmmaker and author. Allen\u2019s book Open Wounds explores the murder of Nate Allen\u2014Phil Allen\u2019s grandfather\u2014in the Jim Crow era of South Carolina and how that traumatic event resonated through generations of his family. Open Wounds \u2013 which is based on the Allen-produced documentary (http://www.openwoundsdoc.com) of the same name \u2013 was published on February 9, 2021. The book can be purchased on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, or Fortress Press.com. Allen is a Ph.D. student studying Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.