Howard Coach Nicholas Askew Earns Drake HERO Award
Howard University swimming and diving coach Nicholas Askew has been named the 2023 winner of the Drake HERO award, the school announced Monday.
The Drake HERO award is given by the Drake Group Education Fund, Inc. It honors, “an extraordinary individual who has helped advance the collegiate sports reform movement through persistent actions over time,” who has “created a significant impact within the world of sports reform and, in doing so, has enhanced the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.” It was established in 2015 and given annually or bi-annually by the group’s board of directors; previous honorees include Nancy Hogshead-Makar.
Askew, who is Howard’s director of swimming and diving and its director of tennis, won the award after leading the Bison men’s team to the Northeast Conference championship this season. The women finished fourth at NECs, and Howard was named the NEC Coaching Staff of the Year for the second straight season.
Askew’s wins and losses are the least of what he’s bringing to Howard, though. He’s created a community around swimming at the historically black college and university that includes community outreach and water safety that led to it being profiled in Sports Illustrated.
Askew is one of the only four Black head coaches in men’s swimming and five in women’s swimming in all three NCAA divisions. (He’s also among just 32 Black head coaches in men’s tennis and 37 in women’s tennis.)
From the Drake Group release:
“His consistent youth sport program service has been extraordinary and his exemplary emphasis on the use of sport to teach athletes the critical life skills of leadership, accountability, discipline, and patience has been nationally recognized. As important, these efforts have increased the number of Black and other athletes of color entering and participating from the entry to the elite levels of the participation pyramid in sports in which they are significantly underrepresented, thereby challenging stereotypes of the interests and abilities of Black athletes and other athletes of color. The achievements of his teams have created public notoriety, thereby raising important questions about the failure of intercollegiate athletics to address the underrepresentation of Black athletes in NCAA men’s and women’s championship sports.
Askew will be presented the award on April 18 at the Sack Symposium National Press Club in Washington.