Sekou Roland '26: Entrepreneur and Football Player

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Sekou Roland didn't anticipate just how many doors would be opened to him as a Princeton student-athlete, and he is doing his best to take advantage of those opportunities. At the same time, he wanted to make sure other people — including those that may not have the same physical abilities as he does — can have doors opened to them as well.

Specifically, Sekou thought about his young brother Anwar, a prolific gamer in an era when colleges are awarding scholarships to esports athletes. Sekou believed his brother had the ability to earn an opportunity somewhere, but there weren't ways to make connections between gamers and schools.

So Roland made the connection himself.

"[Anwar] was a top 400 gamer in a particular game, and I looked into how I can tie his passion into maybe going to college as the next step," said Roland, a senior linebacker on the Princeton football team. "Some schools are offering these opportunities to esports athletes that football players receive at Division I schools. I looked for a recruiting database that we could get him connected with college coaches across the country, but they didn't exist. There weren't the same platforms that I had available to me when I was young."

"So that's what we created," Roland added.

Roland is the founder and CEO of EVAL, a platform connecting esports players with college scholarship opportunities through advanced analytics, combines, and recruitment tools. Launched in 2023, Roland said that it is currently working with a 12,000-person league, the largest regional league in the country. An entrepreneur at heart (he said he was one of the kids selling candy on the bus to make extra money), Roland has found true fulfillment because of the impact EVAL is having.

"I saw a need that could affect the majority of the country who are playing video games today," Roland said. "it's more than just a company or an organization, because we truly have a mission of helping people use their passion and get access to college. I truly believe in that because I am someone who's gotten so much out of being here."

Roland was hopeful Princeton could be the place to open all the doors for him. An all-state and all-league player in high school, he didn't simply choose a college based on where he would find the most playing time. He sought a high level of football and career opportunities afterwards, but he also wanted to know that his degree wouldn't lock him into one career option. A politics major, Roland is thoughtful, inquisitive and constantly wondering what else is possible.

After a tough 2024 season for both himself and the team, he is especially excited about what's possible for this team, which opens Ivy League play Friday night against Columbia.

"I think all of us expect more of ourselves and deserve more out of ourselves as a whole," Roland said. "The whole roster is bought in. We remind ourselves that we don't win with one person. We win with all 11."

He is happy to be back among that 11 after an injury-plagued junior season. Roland was an opening-day starter at inside linebacker last year, and head coach Bob Surace remembers how excited he was by Roland's performance for the first quarter and a half. He had four tackles in the blink of an eye, but then suffered an injury that kept him out three weeks, and ultimately ended his season. He worked hard to be back with his teammates, and he would play three more games, but the doctors eventually ruled him out for the season.

He refuses to look back on last season with a what-could-have-been mentality. Instead, he is optimistic about what is to come over the next two months, and he knows he has put in the work to be an important part of the effort.

"I was just excited to get back on the field," he said of a rehab-filled offseason. "I worked hard to make sure my shoulder was 100% going into the season. I worked on my whole body, so I could come into this season and tell myself that I'm invincible."

So far, so good for Roland and the Tigers, who earned a 38-28 road win at Lafayette last weekend. He has averaged four tackles per game over the opening two weeks, and has added two quarterback hurries and a pass breakup. Even better, Roland has shown the same athleticism that had Surace so encouraged just over a year earlier.

"Sekou is one of the 'twitchiest' athletes I have coached here," Surace said. "He not only shows sideline-to-sideline pursuit at linebacker, but his ability to rush the passer both as an inside and edge linebacker allows us to have a very diverse scheme."

Opportunity has arrived for Roland, and like he has done throughout his life, he plans on making the most of it. He will continue to work towards building the same opportunities for others, which he hopes includes a trip to study the gaming infrastructure within Korea, where it has become a strong part of their culture. There are many kids like Anwar that Sekou hopes to help in America, and he is invested in making it happen.

"Helping people get the opportunity to just get foot in the door will help so many people," Roland said. "Even if they don't know what they want to do, we just want them to have opportunities to figure it out. That's so important."

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