Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

I would like to present my practical experiences in a mentoring program I started which involved pairing our collegiate women’s lacrosse team with a Baltimore city public middle school team. The focused discussion would include the purpose, obstacles, challenges, and benefits of such a program. My purpose was two-fold. I wanted our players to “give back” and I wanted to contribute to attempts to diversify a sport which is one of the least diverse sports sponsored by the NCAA. While the women’s participation in NCAA lacrosse has more than doubled since 2000, the % of African-American participation has only increased from 1.6% to 3.3% according to current NCAA data. I believe that a partnering program if adopted by numerous schools could encourage participation in sports like lacrosse in under-served communities. My experience involved working with coaches in the inner city schools, working with Parks and People, and with US Lacrosse. I obtained a grant from US lacrosse to support this partnership. The partnership involved our team traveling to the partnered middle school to give clinics and run practices with the middle school players. We also hosted the middle school team on our campus for practice sessions and play. Middle schoolers attended collegiate games and on one occasion the NCAA championship. We incorporated a tour with our admissions staff when players were on campus to introduce the middle schoolers to campus life and hopefully encourage interest in attending college. Through the course of this partnership, I was able to identify some best practices, as well as obstacles to success.