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GREENVILLE, SC – Skyler Davies of Chowan University has been selected the recipient of the Conference Carolinas All-Sportsmanship Award.

This is the first Conference Carolinas All-Sportsmanship Award that a student-athlete from Chowan University has garnered since entering the league as a full member four years ago.

In a February contest at Belmont Abbey, Davies acted when a member of the Belmont Abbey men’s basketball team suffered a broken leg in front of the Chowan bench. As play stopped, Davies knelt down and prayed with Jacori Owens, the injured Belmont Abbey player. Davies stayed with Owens while the athletic trainers rushed to his aid. Davies had never met Owens but jumped into action to console Owens and be with him.

“If you have the privilege to know and be around Skyler Davies, you can see very quickly that he lives his life to serve others,” said Rob Burke, head coach of the Chowan University men’s basketball program. “Skyler’s full character was on display that night at Belmont Abbey. As a coach, I am thankful that in an NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) era there are still young men who play the sport for their teammates and for the program first.”

The day following the game, Chowan University’s Associate Vice President for Athletics/Compliance, Patrick Mashuda, received several emails from Belmont Abbey’s athletic administration and Belmont Abbey fans that lauded Davies’ acts of compassion towards an opposing player following the game.

“On a typical day in college athletics, I do not receive emails from another conference member’s athletic administration or fans that applaud the efforts of our teams,” said Mashuda. “We are typically dealing with sportsmanship issues on the other end of the spectrum. However, when these emails of praise came in, I read them in awe. Skyler Davies and the other teammates and staff who provided comfort to a severely hurt young man on the opposing team showed the world what sports are all about. There is a human element to college sports, and at that moment in time, Skyler rose up to show compassion not to an injured opponent but to an injured human being who needed to be comforted with his presence and his prayers.”

In February, the Chowan University Department of Athletics presented Skyler’s teammate Cheick Traore, coach Rob Burke, and Head Athletic Trainer Brenna Schuler with a recognition award for their efforts to aid Jacori Owens. While all mentioned showed acts of compassion, Skyler immediately stopped playing the game to comfort Owens and prayed with him until he was safely secured by medical staff. It was mentioned in emails to Mashuda that the compassion showed by Davies to Owens was so genuine that it appeared to fans that the two had had a previous friendship, when in fact, they had not met each other formally until the night of the incident.

Davies completed his undergraduate degree this May after a two-year career with the Hawks men’s basketball program. He was active on campus through the campus ministries but he is known by everyone as the “official” photographer for the university. His camera traveled with him all over campus, snapping shots of athletic events, campus events, and candid campus life photos. Davies’ photography is on display all over campus and university publications. Most recently he contributed a large gallery of athletic action shots that are on display in the Hawks Athletic Center lobby trophy cases.

The Conference Carolinas All-Sportsmanship Award is an award to recognize sportsmanship that can be presented on an annual basis to an individual or a team. The award mirrors the NCAA’s annual sportsmanship award and is administered through the Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) Committee in Conference Carolinas.