On and off the basketball court, Excellanxt Greer lives up to her first name.
“She’s a game changer,” says UNC Greensboro women’s basketball head coach Trina Patterson.
Greer, a guard for the women’s basketball team, helped the team win a regular season SoCon regular season title in 2020. Now, she’s preparing for her next win – graduating with a bachelor of arts in economics and a minor in chemistry. And – without basketball – it almost didn’t happen.
“I really didn’t see myself going to college,” says Greer. “I knew that my parents wanted me to attend college; however I didn’t see it happening without tremendous debt or working multiple jobs. Once I found I could get an athletic scholarship that would pay for academics, the gate opened for me.”
A CAREGIVER AT HEART
Originally from Mississippi, Greer first became interested in basketball at a young age thanks to both of her parents playing sports. She came to UNCG on “The C. Thomas Martin Athletic Scholarship” with big dreams of someday making it to the WNBA.
“I am a caregiver at heart. I love to help people, I love to inspire people,” says Greer.
That interest in helping others led Greer to look into pharmacy work. Her parents connected her with a cousin who is a pharmacist and she took note: “This is something where I can impact my community.”
After becoming a pharmacy technician at a local Walgreens – she found her calling. Now, she’s heading to pharmacy school at UNC Chapel Hill, just like two basketball greats Ivory Latta and Michael Jordan.
“I have always wanted to go to Chapel Hill,” she says. “I found out I got in while I was volunteering at an elementary school. We were having a break for lunch, I checked my email and erupted.”
CREATING UNITY
Giving back has been important to Greer since high school. She began volunteering to earn service hours in high school, but it became much more for her.
“I found a lot of joy in taking the time out of my day to help someone else,” she says.
As president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), she serves as a liaison between student-athletes on campus and the NCAA. The group offers their input on various NCAA rule changes and guidelines – including voting to support the new rule that gives student-athletes the opportunity to benefit financially from their name, image, and likeness.
But the group is also there to support student-athletes: “It’s just taking in the full student-athlete experience and trying to make the most out of it.”
Two students from each sport are represented on SAAC. The committee hosts community service events along with organizing unity games – a competition between teams to see who can show the most support for each other at different games.
CONNECTIONS AND LEADERSHIP
While Greer helps support the needs of all athletes through SAAC, the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement inspired her to create a new space with the Black Student-Athlete Association. As a sophomore, Greer and several other athletes worked with the Black Student Alliance to form the group as a place to come together for student-athletes of color.
“Black people share a linkage and with everything going on, there were certain things that were happening in the athletic world that were also affecting people of color,” she says. “So we wanted to bring student-athletes of color together and share information.”
As a Black woman, Greer says it was important for her to help open up that space for others to share their feelings.
“Ex is an outstanding leader,” says Patterson, who has coached at UNCG for seven years. “She has great discipline, great communication skills, a high energy level and she handles adversity well.”
Greer admits she’s had adversity at times, including her change of major from chemistry to economics. But she can use that experience to inspire other students like those she tutors at the Academic Achievement Center (AAC).
“I failed my first anatomy exam. I don’t think I ever got a D on an exam before,” she says. “And so being able to tell students how I overcame that is so important to me. Some people think that they’re alone when they’re facing something tough. But they’re not.”
SERVING HER COMMUNITY
After pharmacy school, Greer is open to different pharmacy careers and hopes to one day open her own independent pharmacy: “I want to be my own boss while still serving my community,”
While her dreams shifted from WNBA star to pharmacy entrepreneur – Greer has always wanted to make an impact on others and UNCG is helping make that possible.
“I’m so grateful for all the lessons I’ve learned at UNCG and I’m so grateful for all the support and all the people that have stood beside me and kept pushing me forward into the next chapter of my life.”
Story by Avery Craine Powell, University Communications
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
Videography by Grant Gilliard, University Communications
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