Student Athlete Feature: Antonio Dawkins
Antonio Dawkins from Shelby, North Carolina, is the starting senior cornerback on the Bluefield College Rams football team who overcame an unstable home with domestic abuse, drugs and violence to earn a college scholarship and a chance for a brighter future.
Dawkins grew up in a single-parent home for the majority of his life. He has a total of three siblings. One sibling was killed, another is in prison, and the third just recently got out of prison.
“My pops was in prison almost my whole life so it was just me, my siblings, and (his mother) Ma Dukes,” said Dawkins, who is the first person in his family to make it to college after attending a different secondary school every year prior, including elementary, middle, and high school. In fact, all the other members of his family didn’t even finish or make it to high school.
“During high school my family was homeless, couch hopping, hotels, house hopping for years,” said Dawkins. “Then it came to a point that I was sleeping and taking showers at my high school because I had nowhere to go and no way to get anywhere.”
Dawkins finally got to achieve his dream of playing football his senior year in high school, which was his only year because he was constantly in trouble and trying to maintain his grades. He took full advantage of the opportunity by quickly earning his very first offer for a scholarship to play football at the collegiate level from Chowan University. After considering a number of options, he chose North Carolina Central University.
“I came in focus,” said Dawkins, “because I made it too far to fail. It was no way I was going to let my people down, man.”
After a season at North Carolina Central, Dawkins decided to come to Bluefield College where he now has his sights set on ever greater goals and higher aspirations.
“It feels great being in the position I’m in now because I’m doing something that hasn’t been done in my family,” said Dawkins. What even feels better is that since coming to BC, Dawkins has caught the attention of several professional football teams – a far cry from the life of being homeless just a few years ago.