photo by steed media service

Sports gets the blood pulsating through Sabrina Jenkins’ veins, albeit for a different reason than you might think. As the president of the National Association of Black Sports Professionals’ Atlanta chapter, Jenkins demonstrates as much passion in helping to create a level playing field in the business of sports as she does when she’s rooting for the Atlanta Braves, her baseball team and her employer.

The embryonic, but dynamic NABSP percolates with multifarious possibilities — particularly as it pertains to facilitating an atmosphere conducive to upward mobility for more people of color along the corridors of power in sports. “We’re really here to connect and empower not only African Americans, but all minorities,” says Jenkins, the director of special events for the Atlanta Braves and Turner Field. “We want to raise them to a higher level within the sports industry and sports-related [industries].”

The New York-based NABSP, which also in its infancy, boasts an organizational portfolio of eight chapters after only two years. In Atlanta, Jenkins pledges to charge forward as hard as John Smolz’s fastball, towards actualizing the goals of the NABSP, which include community involvement, mentoring freshly-minted college grads, fostering productive networks, and helping to create more chapters, thus augmenting the group’s burgeoning profile.

“What that will do, is for African Americans who are looking, or who are already in the business and looking to move up — if they just so happen to move out of state or out of Atlanta, there is hopefully another chapter in another city that they can connect with and ... be able to remain involved and engaged and find out the availability of jobs,” she says. -terry shropshire

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