Team DC recognizes seven LGBTQ student-athletes
Dressed to impress in everything from a black velvet tuxedo with a matching bowtie to a sparkling emerald green gown topped with a voluminous black and gray wig, attendees at Team DC’s Night of Champions award dinner on Saturday, April 15 knew they were celebrating a program and scholarship recipients worth getting classed up for. “[These students] are not just athletes,” said Brent Minor, executive director of Team DC. “These are [great] students…somebody had a 4.3 [grade point] average.” Last month, Team DC announced the recipients of its annual Team DC College Scholarship, which awards $2,000 to openly LGBTQ+ student-athletes graduating high school with plans to play a collegiate sport.
The seven recipients come from four high schools in D.C., two in Virginia, and one in Maryland. Since 2008, Team DC has awarded 97 scholarships totaling $142,000.
However, the ceremony and its accompanying silent auctions and dual-entree dinners, hosted at the Hilton Washington D.C. National Mall by the Wharf, weren’t always quite so fancy. “It started off as chips and dips at Nellie’s Sports Bar,” Minor added. “So this has evolved over time and went from a standing cocktail party to finally somebody said, ‘You know what, we need to do this proper and have a sit-down dinner.’” One of the scholarship’s first recipients, Daniel Martinelli, was amazed at how the scholarship has changed.
Martinelli, a gay man, received his award in 2008 for swimming. But the scholarships have expanded in definition of sports to incorporate and recognize students who participate in activities like marching band, hula dancing, and more.
