Story courtesy of Rob Palardy, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Lesley senior Alex Green (BATON ROUGE, La./Robert E. Lee) has been named a regional nominee for the annual Scholar Baller® Program Academic Momentum Award handed out in conjunction with the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS). The award is handed out to a number of male and female student-athletes across all divisions of the NCAA who have exemplified significant academic improvement.

Growing up in Louisiana, Alex pursued the quintessential basketball dream and worked hard to perfect his skills on the playgrounds. A college scout took notice of Alex’s abilities and invited him to play for a Division I community college in Nebraska, a place where he could hopefully use his game on the court to advance to something more.

But Alex spent two years winning on the hard court and neglecting his studies in Nebraska, no offers came his way. He had improved as a player but had not developed as a student. Alex decided to leave and found a Division I National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school in Arkansas that would be willing the pay him to play basketball. Unfortunately Alex broke his arm, was released from his scholarship and shipped home to a post Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana.

Most coaches would not even talk to a player who could give them only one year of competition, but Lesley University and the Lynx men’s basketball program took a chance on him on the stipulation that he would sit out one season. Alex had two years of school and one year of basketball eligibility left so he would have to embrace the NCAA Division III philosophy of student first, athlete second.

Two weeks into his first semester, Lesley’s Director of Student-Athlete Support Christy Belisle got a visit from Alex who said to her, “Miss Christy, I did not know what the school was trying to do for me when they said ‘no basketball’. But I realize now that you are the first people that ever cared about my education. Thank you for believing in me.”

“Alex has learned to ask for help and puts in unrelenting hours with his books and basketball,” says Belisle. “He is often the first student in Student-Athlete Services each morning, and often the last to leave.”

From that moment on, Alex used the incredible work ethic he had used towards improving his basketball skills and applied that to his study habits. He now rivals some of Lesley top academic student-athletes in the classroom.

Alex’s writing has improved dramatically thanks to real world experience in his internships that force him to use journalistic skills and in the classroom where he is writing papers on deep and meaningful subjects related to his life. His writings have helped to connect where he has come from and where he intends to go next in life.

Through basketball, Alex has learned the strong work ethic needed to succeed. But at the end of his collegiate journey, Alex has learned the value of a quality education and Lesley University is a better place for his contributions.