How to get more black athletes to play lacrosse

IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH LACROSSE If you are a player, coach, referee, program manager, service provider, or associated with anyone in any of these roles, you are aware of the challenges involved in creating, maintaining and expanding the presence of Black players (male and female) in the sport.

The purpose of this article is to explain these challenges and provide some options for overcoming them.

The challenges can be divided into three broad categories of hindering factors: cultural, economic and recruitment/retention.

CULTURAL FACTORS

At the college level, particularly at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as opposed to predominantly white institutions (PWI), black participation in college has been limited for three reasons:

1. Lacrosse is perceived as a white sport and not congruent with traditional HBCU culture. Therefore, lacrosse did not promote the HBCU brand. A white sport was not a badge of honor at a black school.
2. Blacks who play lacrosse in high school don’t always want to play HBCU lacrosse because HBCU culture was not always compatible with their upbringing. Those who grew up in a predominantly white/multicultural environment did not always fit into the HBCU milieu.
3. Predominantly white schools may be hesitant to schedule games with HBCUsIf they beat them and the result is not competitive, then they will be accused of “unfairly beating the blacks.” If they lose, then the quality of their program will be viewed as questionable. To avoid either scenario, it may be best not to schedule the games.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

1. Lacrosse is an expensive sport. On average, it costs at least $500 to fully outfit a male player. So to have at least 10 players on the field and 10 on the sidelines, it costs $10,000. Add to that other program costs such as hiring referees, travel expenses, field maintenance, coaches, insurance, and security. Lacrosse’s prohibitive cost explains why it is a global sport. All you need is a ball, a net, and maybe some shin guards. This means that players from developing countries can compete with Western countries because the competition is purely based on athleticism and game strategy. Only the economic elite can participate in lacrosse. Sixes, a new variation of lacrosse that requires only six players per team, imposes a smaller economic burden, but not by a significant amount.
2. Title IX requirements mean that women’s programs are given priority at the college level. Therefore, it may be feasible to establish programs for women’s sports first and then add men’s sports. But this also means that if the demand for women’s sports is low, there will be no men’s programs.
3. Revenue-generating sports often take priority over lacrossewhich is not typically a profitable sport for HBCUs. This in turn makes it difficult for athletic directors to promote lacrosse as an added value for the HBCU.
4. Lacrosse funding can vary at public and private colleges. While both rely on alumni support, public schools may have varying levels of funding depending on tax revenue, while private college funding may vary depending on endowment earnings. The total cost of owning a program also includes coaches’ needs such as assistance with scouting games, recruiting visits, attending and sponsoring clinics, recruiting and developing staff, videotaping, and technical support.

Factors for recruitment and retention

At the college level:

1. Students often need a scholarship to attend college. Managing scholarships in any sport requires a high degree of logical, mathematical and political skill, as the need often exceeds the number of scholarships available.
2. Students may have to drop out of college either because of poor grades or to support their families (orientation and/or reproduction).
3. Students often need academic and personal support to stay focused and on track to graduate. On the other hand, college graduation rates are coming under increasing scrutiny, making it difficult for coaches and athletic directors to recruit talented but underachieving students.
4. Students need access to high-quality practice and training facilities, trainers, medical care and nutritionistsAt HBCUs, these resources are most likely reserved for revenue-generating sports, not lacrosse players.
5. Students with exceptional skills who want to play professionally are likely to move to PWIs to gain exposure. It is highly unlikely that professional lacrosse leagues will recruit players from schools in small media markets.

Opportunities to increase black participation

While there are cultural, economic and administrative challenges within the sport of lacrosse that stand in the way of establishing and maintaining programs, there are also some viable options to consider.

At youth level:

1. Combine lacrosse programs with existing football, soccer and basketball programs. In particular, ask parents and program directors if introductory lacrosse classes or perhaps even leagues can be set up with youth who already play another sport.

• The parents and young people are already at the venue. This would only be an additional 30-60 minutes with no additional cost or travel time.
• For teenagers, it is enough to use helmets and protective pads to start playing football, all you need is bats, gloves and a bucket of balls.
• These youth leagues are often overcrowded with players who don’t get much playing time. This provides them with an alternative, especially if they find that their talent is greater in lacrosse.

At the college level:

1. Create a club team and register it with Next college league. The league uses a six-man format in hopes of developing players for the discipline played at the 2028 Olympics and has a 10-year media rights deal with Next Level Sports & Entertainment. By participating in this league with a club team, it lowers some of the barriers to entry, connects the sport to school admissions and lays the foundation for a college program.
2. Suggest to the athletic director that spring lacrosse be placed under the football cost center. (as a one-year demonstration project) so that football players are encouraged to take up the sport as part of the spring conditioning program. This would integrate the football players with the lacrosse players as a single unit, allow the football players to get in shape, and allow coaches to discover lacrosse players who may have potential as football players (e.g. Jim Brown, who was an All-American in both sports). If the lacrosse program is funded by NCL, then the primary expense is whatever the football players need to play lacrosse and is not covered by NCL. The strategic intent here is to sell lacrosse as a vertically integrated sport that adds value to football – lacrosse as an extension of football keeps football as the primary asset and creates space for lacrosse in a non-threatening way.

DIPLOMA

In fact, the challenges to increasing black participation in lacrosse are structural, not agency-based. It is socioeconomic and political factors that make participation difficult, not the efforts of any one person or even a secret hegemony.

From my time as a member of the Morgan State Ten Bears lacrosse team (I played in 1977 and 1978) to my board membership at the Greater Baltimore Lacrosse Foundation, the topics here are interrelated but treated separately.

However, I believe the best way forward is not to break new ground, but to integrate lacrosse with existing programs, hoping that lacrosse will develop its own identity and provide more blacks with the opportunity to participate.

Until then, may everyone who is already connected to The Creator’s Game do their best to make the game accessible to those who do not have access to it.

• Donate equipment.
• Sponsor a clinic.
• Lease a practice area.
• Show how to play wallball.
• Network with coaches from other sports. Attend a game and encourage players from both sides.

Progress is never an inevitable process. If we look forward to better times, we still have a lot to achieve.

Let us make it possible.