DENVER – The COVID-19 pandemic had put her collegiate athletic career on hold, and the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum.
 
And MSU Denver volleyball player Kayla White, home for the summer in one of the most significant cities in the history of the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, had a choice to make.
 
Her friend, her "little sister," from high school was organizing a march in Montgomery, Ala.
 
And, yes, White would be part of it.
 
"It was something I felt very strongly about," she said. "During a pandemic, I thought maybe I was being stupid, but with everything that went on with coronavirus and police brutality, it hit differently. I felt like I couldn't just sit there in my house."
 
White, a senior who earned a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Summit Award for maintaining the highest grade-point average of any student-athlete to reach the conference tournament semifinals in volleyball, deflects credit for her involvement.
 
"I helped spread the word and I showed up," she said. "I helped make signs."
 
But the experience was significant.
 
"I think I grew as a person because I took action that I haven't ever before, and I was able to stand behind what I believe in," White said.
 
"I really didn't know my black history until I moved to the South. And then I realized that people didn't like me because of the color of my skin, or people didn't like that I sound educated. I had to understand that it wasn't anything I should be ashamed of, that it was something that I had to own."
 
Born in Colorado Springs, Colo., while her mother was the head volleyball coach at Air Force, White moved to Montgomery as a middle schooler when Penny Lucas-White became the head coach at Division I Alabama State in 2011.
 
The change was eye-opening.
 
"My mom always said she wanted us to be brought up in Colorado, because people don't see color here," White said. "So it was a culture shock for me and my brothers. The biggest thing was that we were different. We talked different. In the South, it's tradition. They are set in their ways and close-minded.
 
"Black people are supposed to act a certain way and talk a certain way. And when we weren't that, we were different, even from black people."
 
Fast forward to the summer of 2020.
 
Grace Jackson, White's friend, was organizing a protest in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, which had sparked outrage nationwide.
 
The march would run from downtown Montgomery to the Alabama State Capitol, the end point of the historic third voting rights march from Selma, Ala., in 1965.
 
And while Montgomery, site of the Rosa Parks-inspired Montgomery Bus Boycott – one of the signature events of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s – may have improved for people of color, "tradition," as White refers to it, still is part of the culture.
 
"If you look at Montgomery, the schools are still segregated," White said. "(Almost) all the black people go to public schools, and (almost) all the white people go to private schools. The white people live on the east side, and the black people live on the west side. Nobody really intermixes."
 
Jackson and White both attended the prestigious Montgomery Academy, a private school where White was one of four blacks in her graduating class of 56.
 
And Jackson's march was about more than just protesting.
 
"Grace wanted real change," White said. "She wanted it to be healing for people who have experienced things, but she also wanted to find solutions – so that we weren't just angry and yelling."
 
And so, on a blazing hot early June day, the march for "truth and reconciliation" took place. There were speakers, there was singing, there were poetry readings. Speakers talked about their experiences and their fears.
 
"It was crazy, because only a little over 200 people showed up, and you would see thousands of people showing up (for protests) in Denver," White said. "And that's where it hit home for me, that I'm from the roots of civil rights, the roots of racism. That's when I realized that there's so much work to be done. I'm so glad I was a part of it, but I wish it had been so much bigger than it was."
 
Pride and disappointment can also be witnessed in the summer of preparation for a fall volleyball season that never came due to COVID-19.
 
"We say it a lot in volleyball, 'Adapt and overcome,'" White said. "A lot of things have been thrown at us and there's been a lot of uncertainty for sure. So it's rolling with the punches and being ready for anything."
 
The low point came in early August, White said, when the team was getting ready for the season to start on time.
 
"We are practicing as if we had a season," White said. "We were going hard. The NCAA wasn't making a decision, and yet we knew there was no way we were going to play. And then to not have a season, it almost felt like all the work we did – over the summer and when we got sent home this spring, we were still grinding, having practice over Zoom calls, watching film, doing everything we could to make up for not being able to play together – didn't matter. That was the low point, because you felt like you were practicing for nothing.
 
"Other people were in control of our destiny, and I think that messed with me the most."
 
But she took solace in having a group of teammates to rely on for support.
 
"It's a blessing to be on a team," White said. "It would be one thing if I was by myself and going through all this. Obviously it didn't feel great, but there were other people I knew who were going through the same thing. I can't imagine what it would have been like if I didn't have anybody else to go through it with."
 
While the Roadrunners' bid for a 21^st straight trip to the NCAA Division II National Tournament – the third-longest active streak in the country – was put on hold, they do have the chance to regroup and continue the streak next year since the fall season and national championships were canceled.
 
MSU Denver has a 16-match spring schedule in place starting Jan. 24, and all players will retain their eligibility for next fall.
 
But there was momentum and a positive feeling that this fall the Roadrunners had a real chance to reach the national quarterfinals for the first time in program history. Last season ended with a five-set loss at Regis in the NCAA Tournament, and Regis eventually reached the national semifinals as the tournament was held on MSU Denver's home court at the Auraria Event Center.
 
"We had five starters coming back and we definitely had the advantage over a lot of the teams in our conference, and probably our region, too," White said. "After experiencing the National Championships on our home floor, there's a lot of emotion that comes with that. To lose the RMAC on our home floor (against Colorado School of Mines), and seeing Regis on our home floor in the final four, we had a lot of stuff we wanted to prove this year.
 
"There are so many things we were working so hard for, and then to not see that come through … we felt like this could have been a breakthrough year."
 
But, in so many other ways for White, it was a breakthrough year.