Lack of diversity in lacrosse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the problem racism or is it diversity?

Good point. Many sports teams are not diverse. Could be because of things like grades, interest, exposure to the game, talent, or potential to make a living from the sport. There are probably more reasons. College football teams are not diverse when considering the make up of the US population compared to who plays on these teams. But I don't think anyone considers college football to be a racist sport. Lacrosse may not be diverse just like football, but it's certainly not a racist sport. My DD has played on teams with multiple AA, Asians, Indians, players from all walks of life. More likely individuals choose not to play for reasons noted above. Not because the sport is blocking them from playing.

And yet, there are no AA players at UVA, and maybe one at VT tech, WM and UNC. Where did AA players go?

People go out of their ways to say that they are for diversity and inclusion; however, how many of them are for busing kids from poor neighborhood in Fairfax County to attend McLean or Langley high school?

[Anonymous]

Is there opportunity for lacrosse to become more diverse? Absolutely.

However the solution to this problem... Similar to what started 20+ years ago with soccer, it needs to happen at the grass roots/ rec level. USA Lacrosse needs to lead this and they are doing a horrible job.

By the time kids get to the A level club or high school level, its about a combination of refined lax skills and athleticism. Throwing shade at college coaches for the diversity of their roster is patently absurd. Any coach is going to recruit the best potential players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there opportunity for lacrosse to become more diverse? Absolutely.

However the solution to this problem... Similar to what started 20+ years ago with soccer, it needs to happen at the grass roots/ rec level. USA Lacrosse needs to lead this and they are doing a horrible job.

By the time kids get to the A level club or high school level, its about a combination of refined lax skills and athleticism. Throwing shade at college coaches for the diversity of their roster is patently absurd. Any coach is going to recruit the best potential players.

US lacrosse simply represents its members, ie the lacrosse community. Which means the lacrosse community ie you, me, people reading and posting here, need to lead it. After reading through the posts here, what do you think, sound doable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the problem racism or is it diversity?

Good point. Many sports teams are not diverse. Could be because of things like grades, interest, exposure to the game, talent, or potential to make a living from the sport. There are probably more reasons. College football teams are not diverse when considering the make up of the US population compared to who plays on these teams. But I don't think anyone considers college football to be a racist sport. Lacrosse may not be diverse just like football, but it's certainly not a racist sport. My DD has played on teams with multiple AA, Asians, Indians, players from all walks of life. More likely individuals choose not to play for reasons noted above. Not because the sport is blocking them from playing.

And yet, there are no AA players at UVA, and maybe one at VT tech, WM and UNC. Where did AA players go?

People go out of their ways to say that they are for diversity and inclusion; however, how many of them are for busing kids from poor neighborhood in Fairfax County to attend McLean or Langley high school?

No they are bussing rich kids from Herndon to Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the problem racism or is it diversity?

Good point. Many sports teams are not diverse. Could be because of things like grades, interest, exposure to the game, talent, or potential to make a living from the sport. There are probably more reasons. College football teams are not diverse when considering the make up of the US population compared to who plays on these teams. But I don't think anyone considers college football to be a racist sport. Lacrosse may not be diverse just like football, but it's certainly not a racist sport. My DD has played on teams with multiple AA, Asians, Indians, players from all walks of life. More likely individuals choose not to play for reasons noted above. Not because the sport is blocking them from playing.

And yet, there are no AA players at UVA, and maybe one at VT tech, WM and UNC. Where did AA players go?

People go out of their ways to say that they are for diversity and inclusion; however, how many of them are for busing kids from poor neighborhood in Fairfax County to attend McLean or Langley high school?

UVA has one. Last year they had three. It looks like their would be junior isn't playing this year. From looking at the roster, VT doesn't, but they do have a player from the Akwesasne Nation. Why WM is in the conversation I don't know, but yes they have two AA players. UNC takes a black girl every four years. Duke has one, but they have two 22s signed. BC has zero. ND has zero. Loyola has one. Syracuse has one, but they also have women from Haudenosaunee and two AA players coming in next year. Northwestern has one. SB has one. Florida has zero. So that means in the women's top ten there are seven AA players. Are there girls being overlooked, yes. Are there girls choosing not to go where they will be the only, yes. Is lacrosse racist, you better believe it. It has been shown, just on this thread, what folks do when they feel attacked. We aren't saying you are a member of the KKK, but yes you will do what you need to do to keep others out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there opportunity for lacrosse to become more diverse? Absolutely.

However the solution to this problem... Similar to what started 20+ years ago with soccer, it needs to happen at the grass roots/ rec level. USA Lacrosse needs to lead this and they are doing a horrible job.

By the time kids get to the A level club or high school level, its about a combination of refined lax skills and athleticism. Throwing shade at college coaches for the diversity of their roster is patently absurd. Any coach is going to recruit the best potential players.

My child attends a diverse school and she hears from kids that lacrosse is a "white sport". This idea definitely hampers kids in school even if they are interested from trying out. There is rec level play in the DMV area that is not that expense and provides financial help but if parents and kids feel that way then it's going to be hard to get more kids interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the problem racism or is it diversity?

Good point. Many sports teams are not diverse. Could be because of things like grades, interest, exposure to the game, talent, or potential to make a living from the sport. There are probably more reasons. College football teams are not diverse when considering the make up of the US population compared to who plays on these teams. But I don't think anyone considers college football to be a racist sport. Lacrosse may not be diverse just like football, but it's certainly not a racist sport. My DD has played on teams with multiple AA, Asians, Indians, players from all walks of life. More likely individuals choose not to play for reasons noted above. Not because the sport is blocking them from playing.

And yet, there are no AA players at UVA, and maybe one at VT tech, WM and UNC. Where did AA players go?

People go out of their ways to say that they are for diversity and inclusion; however, how many of them are for busing kids from poor neighborhood in Fairfax County to attend McLean or Langley high school?

UVA has one. Last year they had three. It looks like their would be junior isn't playing this year. From looking at the roster, VT doesn't, but they do have a player from the Akwesasne Nation. Why WM is in the conversation I don't know, but yes they have two AA players. UNC takes a black girl every four years. Duke has one, but they have two 22s signed. BC has zero. ND has zero. Loyola has one. Syracuse has one, but they also have women from Haudenosaunee and two AA players coming in next year. Northwestern has one. SB has one. Florida has zero. So that means in the women's top ten there are seven AA players. Are there girls being overlooked, yes. Are there girls choosing not to go where they will be the only, yes. Is lacrosse racist, you better believe it. It has been shown, just on this thread, what folks do when they feel attacked. We aren't saying you are a member of the KKK, but yes you will do what you need to do to keep others out.

"you will do what you need to do to keep others out" Uh, no. You clearly never played any high level sport in college or high school level. If you did, you'd understand kids just want to win. They dont care if Johnny is black, Susie is yellow, or Mike is white. They just want to win. I can get behind the Harlem and Baltimore programs that are trying to build the program at the youth level, but to say this sport or that sport is racist is just lazy and smacks of racism by those applying those labels. If you really want to do something about what you percieve as a problem, as Nike says 'just do it'. You can donate time, money and used gear to those programs, and they will gladly accept it. But sports is one of the few things holding the kids together these days and extending social engineering to the kids is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there opportunity for lacrosse to become more diverse? Absolutely.

However the solution to this problem... Similar to what started 20+ years ago with soccer, it needs to happen at the grass roots/ rec level. USA Lacrosse needs to lead this and they are doing a horrible job.

By the time kids get to the A level club or high school level, its about a combination of refined lax skills and athleticism. Throwing shade at college coaches for the diversity of their roster is patently absurd. Any coach is going to recruit the best potential players.

My child attends a diverse school and she hears from kids that lacrosse is a "white sport". This idea definitely hampers kids in school even if they are interested from trying out. There is rec level play in the DMV area that is not that expense and provides financial help but if parents and kids feel that way then it's going to be hard to get more kids interested.

For the top 4 ISL girls lax programs, how many AA players have their been in the past few years? BI hasn't had 1. SSSAS has had 2. SR has had 1 and Visi has 0 (I think). Is this on the lax programs at those schools or the schools themselves? Or maybe its just those that could afford the schools? Or maybe just maybe its the people who chose not to apply at all and not because of lax but because of the school itself. Theres a bigger issue here folks and its not sports related and its also not based on race but more likely straight up economics.

[Anonymous]

Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

Maybe she just played better at the tryout it happens all the time. I am sure M&D and USA coaches are not putting the same level of thought as the people posting here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

I was told that if she played M&D A, she wouldn't be playing middie (not insane to think M&D A has stud middies) and since she insisted on playing middie, she chose to remain on B.

She probably had a great tryout as well for National team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

That is a really serious accusation, and completely unsupported from anything in the article, and goes against what everybody knows about travel sports. Teams play to win, period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

That is a really serious accusation, and completely unsupported from anything in the article, and goes against what everybody knows about travel sports. Teams play to win, period.

It's a legit point. M&D had only 3 other players on the team, one of whom was an attacker. Is M&D is keeping a national player on their B team that is a legitimate question to ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

That is a really serious accusation, and completely unsupported from anything in the article, and goes against what everybody knows about travel sports. Teams play to win, period.

That is exactly what the family is implying.

"After rotating between a half-dozen coaches, Kim felt relief when Peck Burmeister, a coach for the M&D Lacrosse Club, was adamant Griffin was a midfielder and invited her to join his club in January 2021."

"“One, you can’t lock her in and have her only play defense, because that’s what happens in this sport. African Americans are only in defense."

Transation, any coach that played her on D and not Middie, had racial motives behind it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearly 14 pages into this thread, no one has addressed the elephant in the room for this article.

How did a girl on the M&D B team make the U16 national team? And yes she is the only B team player on the team.

Is M&D discriminating against her and unfairly keeping her on the B team?

Or is US lacrosse putting a less talented player on its national team to increase diversity?

That is a really serious accusation, and completely unsupported from anything in the article, and goes against what everybody knows about travel sports. Teams play to win, period.

That is exactly what the family is implying.

"After rotating between a half-dozen coaches, Kim felt relief when Peck Burmeister, a coach for the M&D Lacrosse Club, was adamant Griffin was a midfielder and invited her to join his club in January 2021."

"“One, you can’t lock her in and have her only play defense, because that’s what happens in this sport. African Americans are only in defense."

Transation, any coach that played her on D and not Middie, had racial motives behind it.

It is very, very hard to have movement between the a and b teams on the top travel teams. And not racist at all - facts. Human nature is that once anyone black, white, brown, yellow has been slotted into a position, you are there for that team. Also, on different teams, your child can and will take on different responsibilities. Nothing nefarious at all.