More Than Eligible: From student-athlete to student of life at 49
Anton “Ricco” Booker
Across Greenville, South Carolina, Anton “Ricco” Booker, also known by many simply as Coach Booker, has spent nearly two decades pouring into young men and fathers. He mentors them on and off the field through both his coaching and his work in human services.
His commitment to them is deeply personal because he was raised by a single mother and knows firsthand what it feels like to lack the guidance of a steady father-figure.
But nonprofit work can be shaky ground.
When his organization faced big budget cuts tied to the curriculum he was teaching, it was a wake-up call.
Adult Learner, Mentor, Coach, Social Services Professional
Suddenly Ricco found himself coming to work with unanswered questions that kept looping in his brain.
What if the funding dries up?
What if stability disappears?
Before long, those “what ifs” shifted from nagging thoughts to bright spotlights exposing deeper truths.
He knew he was intelligent, but he carried an old storyline in his head from his first run at college where he had prioritized his athletic pursuits over his academic ones. Since 1999, when he stopped out, he had been telling himself, “I missed my chance.”
Now faced with growing anxiety about his job stability, he realized he had to take control and build a future that reflected his self-worth by going back to finish his degree. But beneath that decision was something even deeper and more meaningful than career ambition.
He remembered his mother’s wishes. Though she’d been gone for 23 years, Ricco still heard the whispers of her hope for him to finish his education, and he still wanted to make her proud.
But the road to earning his degree felt daunting.
That’s when he connected with TalentRiseGVL, a program at the Greenville Chamber that helps adults engage with meaningful education that puts them on a path to a career in demand. Soon Benedicte Axboe, the Director of TalentRiseGVL, introduced him to College Unbound, and he immediately saw a path to a degree that would work for him.
For one, College Unbound honored his lived experience including transfer credits from his first time at college and certifications he had earned as a working professional. In all, his lived experience totaled 84 credits putting him in striking distance of the 120 credit hours needed to earn his bachelor’s degree.
Suddenly, finishing his degree didn’t feel so daunting anymore.
He had a clear and achievable plan.
So at 48, Ricco re-enrolled in college and went all in!
This time round, he wasn’t chasing eligibility as a student athlete, he was chasing legacy.
He set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals) for himself:
Enroll fall 2024
Finish by December 2025
Show up to the classroom with excellence
And once in the classroom, he did the work like a man determined to break a pattern.
“I’ve started things my whole life and didn’t finish. I refuse to do that again.”
Even when life hit hard, including deaths in the family, a car accident, and a vandalized church, he kept showing up.
He stayed consistent. Resilient. Focused.
But the real shift came through the learning itself. In one course, he wrote a “failure resume” that sharpened his professional identity and challenged his personal one. As he wrote, he saw places where he’d hurt himself, hurt others, and missed opportunities. He realized he’d been “selling himself short for too long.” And he understood why credentials mattered.
“Having the credentials to back who you are can just take you to another level.”
In his heart, Ricco always knew that his education was about something bigger than himself. He even guided his younger sister to enroll in College Unbound at the same time giving his own education finish line added meaning.
With his sister determined to finish her degree too, soon all four of his mother’s children will hold degrees.
At the time I spoke to Ricco, graduation was approaching, and he described himself as “on edge with anticipation.” He said he couldn’t wait to hold the diploma in his hands, to frame it, to post it, to say out loud, “This is real. I did it.”
Congratulations, Ricco.
It’s real.
You did it.
Center for Academic Innovation team member Bridgett Strickler interviewed Anton “Ricco Booker” and authored this narrative. To explore additional adult learner stories, visit BridgettStrickler.com or follow Bridgett on LinkedIn, where she regularly writes about adult learner comebacks. To learn about Bridgett’s deeply personal connection to this work, be sure to watch her TEDx talk, “If you’re going back to school, community may be the medicine.”