Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of the day resulting from what Georgia Tech men's basketball associate head coach Eric Reveno describes as "momentous legislation" in Division I. It's the first Tuesday after Nov. 1, when games, practices and other countable athletically related activities are prohibited in Division I to allow for civic engagement activity and education.
Reveno was among the first last year in college athletics to advocate for a day free from athletics and dedicated to civic engagement, an idea Georgia Tech enacted. Several other teams and schools followed. The National Association of Basketball Coaches got behind the push. NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors backed such action via a statement that encouraged schools to designate last year's Election Day as a day off from athletics "so athletes can vote and participate in their ultimate responsibility as citizens."
"Then it took momentum of its own," Reveno said.
That's due in large part to the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, composed of athletes from each of the division's conferences. The committee took the idea a step further with its legislative proposal to carve out the day every year in the Division I manual, not just for presidential elections. The Division I Council approved the legislation in September 2020. Division II will vote on similar legislation at the 2022 Convention in January.
"The wisdom of what (Division I SAAC) did is so powerful because it puts it into the record books, so when coaches like me forget what it's all about, we're reminded. It does exactly what it was meant to do," Reveno said. "Nothing's perfect, but it does create this opportunity to talk about it."
Georgia Tech student-athletes were among many to become involved on Election Day in 2020. Last year was the first Election Day when games, practices and other countable athletically related activities were prohibited in Division I to allow for civic engagement activity and education. The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee recommended the legislation, which is in effect every year, not only for national elections.
After last year's national election that saw entire teams registering to vote or volunteering at polling locations, Reveno has continued working to keep the day's momentum alive, to keep its symbolic meaning front and center. He has developed relationships that have led to the AllVoteNoPlay hashtag he used last year on Twitter becoming an online resource for coaches and athletics staff to use this year and beyond. Additionally, a pilot program is underway with 20 college coaches, with a goal of developing a curriculum to teach student-athletes to be better citizens.
"My main personal thing is getting coaches to change their habits on engaging student-athletes civically," Reveno said. "As coaches, we can do better."
The moment Reveno realized he could do better occurred during a virtual team meeting in 2020 following protests over the killing of George Floyd during a police stop in Minneapolis. When he listened to his players talk and share their passion to make change happen, the words hit him like a freight train. Regret quickly turned into an internal rally to do better.
"They said some things that made me realize I hadn't done anything in my 23-year coaching career around voter engagement, to help our guys vote," Reveno said. "I knew I was going to change in that moment."
Reveno promised his players as much. He said his evolution started with habit changes. He educated himself on voting and civic engagement as much as he could. He tweeted his "tail off" about the subject. He made it part of his coaching duties to ensure all his players were registered to vote.
"I wanted to make sure it was important and it was their option," Reveno said.
A former Stanford basketball player who has coached more than 20 years at the college level, Reveno has witnessed the evolution of college coaches' priorities firsthand. He has seen topics like financial planning, nutrition and mental health become top of mind in the coaching community.
Reveno (right) wears a mask that says "VOTE" during Election Day in 2020. A former basketball player at Stanford who's coached in the college ranks for 20-plus years, Reveno became passionate about voter education and civic engagement after a virtual team meeting in 2020 following the protests over the killing of George Floyd in which his players shared their passion to make change happen.
"Well, why not voting? There's room for it," Reveno said. "I think it's really on coaches, too."
Reveno's focus the past year has been on helping his colleagues in this area.
His mission has been jump-started by a connection he made last year with Lisa Kay Solomon, a former student-athlete, best-selling author and lecturer at Stanford's design school. In 2019, she launched Vote by Design, "an immersive, nonpartisan, digital learning experience designed to promote more civic engagement, agency and action among all voters, and particularly next gen voters," according to its website. Its programming has been delivered to high schools, colleges and community organizations across the country.
Through several conversations and connections with other nonpartisan groups, Reveno and Solomon started pursuing something similar for college coaches.
The pilot program — Building America's Teammates — was one result of this collaboration. In its second of four months working with 20 college coaches, it features a partnership with writer, activist and comedian Baratunde Thurston. The program uses his podcast "How To Citizen With Baratunde" as a framework to connect coaches with ways to reimagine the word "citizen" through four pillars: participate, relationships, power and collective.
"You have to show up and participate. The second thing is you have to have relationships and empathy for the people around you. Third thing is you have to understand how to use your powers, which is voting, but for the kids in athletics, it's your SAAC group, that's your power. Then the fourth one is the idea that to be a good citizen you have to make others better," Reveno explained. "For me, the same things that require you to be a good teammate are the same core elements that require you to be a good citizen."
Another outcome of Solomon and Reveno's teamwork is allvotenoplay.org, which provides coaches with a list of "civic drills" to help all athletes flex and grow their civic mindsets, behaviors and habits.
These drills range in time from five minutes to two hours or more and include several tangible ideas for coaches who may not know where to start. One of the drills is to plan a field trip to a meaningful place in the community. Georgia Tech's men's basketball team, for instance, is going to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. Other drills include educational podcasts and documentaries, registering to vote, volunteering at a polling location, and hosting a barbecue with public officials.
While the resource was designed with Tuesday's observance in mind, Reveno said its value goes well beyond the day.
"This is a tool, a resource that they can go to and find what works for them," Reveno said. "(Tuesday is) important. It's the one-year anniversary of some momentous legislation, so it's important, but I'm kind of viewing it from the long-haul perspective, too. If we can just keep moving it forward and keep the conversation going, it doesn't have to be the number one priority of every group right now at this moment, but to keep it in the conversation is good progress."
Reveno (left) has coached at Georgia Tech since 2016 after serving as Portland's head coach for 10 years.
