Dee Mitchell Discusses Being Put on Scholarship

STILLWATER – To say the fall of 2020 was rather difficult for Dee Mitchell would probably be an understatement. Mitchell, who was a walk-on on the basketball team, was taking a rather full class load of 19 hours in the fall. On top of all that, his mom, who’s a travel nurse, saw a reduction in hours due to COVID-19, so Mitchell picked up a full 40-hour work week at Walmart to help pay his tuition. On top of all that, he’s in GIA nearly every morning at 5 a.m. to get up shots and a workout in.

Over the weekend Cowboy basketball released a video on Twitter of the basketball staff showing up where Mitchell works, the Walmart on West Sixth in Stillwater, to award him with a scholarship.

“I was high in emotion; I was very excited and overwhelmed with the situation,” said Mitchell. “Everybody did a good job with the setup and surprising me, so I was very surprised and very emotional.”

It was a rather emotion and heartfelt video, which you can see here, and it was picked up by nearly every major outlet, ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, as well as the Today Show, ABC new and CBS News. Just a warning, if you haven’t watched the video yet, prepare to have some tissues on standby.

“They distracted me with a lot of business,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “The excuse that they made was I had to take a safety evaluation. I had to watch a video. I went to the back and at the same time I had a Zoom call, I thought it was academic zoom call with the team. So I was trying to do both of those things at the same time and then my manager rushed in and was like, ‘We got to clean up a mess like right outside, so we need to go right now.’ So I was in a hurry. I had a lot of things going on. Just seeing everybody outside, seeing the camera in my face and everything, I realized that what the moment was about and it was special.”

The entire team was there on a Zoom call, as well as his mom who was on a phone call. So, it was a rather special moment for a guy who’s grinded it out for nearly three years as a walk-on.

“I think he’s a great example of what life is really about,” Boynton said. “He’s a guy who young kids should look at and say, ‘Hey, don’t let your circumstances dictate how you go about your everyday life.’ You never know when that opportunity presents itself.

“I don’t know if he would say he’s been through a lot. Everybody’s been through a lot. I would say the way he’s handled going through this is what’s most impressive.”