SAGA's Austin Hendrix featured in Associated Press profile

We've written about Eastern Michigan University's SAGA student athlete group and heard from their co-president Austin Hendrix. Now Austin is featured in a profile from the Associated Press:

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Austin Hendrix thought he would be free once he got to college.

There would be no more hiding the fact he's gay, no more denying something that is as much a part of him as the color of his eyes. He could be himself, not the muted version he'd been presenting to the world, to his friends and his teammates in Eastern Michigan's track and cross-country programs.

That was the plan, anyway.

"I was new here. I didn't know anyone on the team, I didn't know anyone on the campus at all. So nobody knew that I was gay," said Hendrix, whose wiry frame immediately pegs him as a distance runner. "I had to make the decision on whether or not to confide in my teammates, coach, classmates, whatever, that I was gay and tell them my sexuality, or just keep it a secret.

"You want to fit in, you want to have your teammates' respect. And a lot of people are ashamed to come out because they think their teammates will think less of them."

For Hendrix, his choice of school ratcheted up the stakes. Eastern Michigan is a Mid-American Conference powerhouse in running, with 34 titles in track and another 15 in cross country. It has produced two Olympic gold medalists. The last thing Hendrix wanted was to cause tension or awkwardness in the locker room, or turn teammates against each other.

Or turn them all against him.

That nightmare scenario would be even worse in distance running, the purest, most primal of sports. There are no scrimmages or fancy drills during base training, just mileage – lots of it. Hendrix and his teammates spend one, sometimes two hours a day running through the neighborhoods and parks around Eastern Michigan, nothing to break up the monotony of their workouts besides sharing bits and pieces of their lives.

So Hendrix stepped back into the closet.

Only now it felt more like a prison.

He would remain trapped there for two long years, until his courage overcame his fear – and he discovered there'd been no reason to hide.

"You can't say that you can just forget about your sexuality. It's who you are. You're attracted to certain people," Hendrix said. "My first two years here, I thought about 'How can I come out? When should I come out?'

Keep reading HERE.