In this article Matthew Gutierrez writes about how the game of lacrosse has changed and altered these inner city kids lives for the better. How profound of an impact something so simple as the game of lacrosse can have on the successes in one’s life. It shows the true diversity of the game and doesn’t classify it as the normally seen game played by “white” “upper class” males. This article will play an important role in my piece because I will tie it into the idea of lacrosse players and what they sponsor. This will be helpful for me to show that the game of lacrosse is also sponsoring diversity and helping to better others lives. I think this piece will interest others in the class because it ties into our first reading from Lambeth, Laurie Clements. 2016. “The Three-Legged Dog Who Carried Me“. New York Times. It ties into her piece because her Three-Legged dog changed her life and gave it meaning. For these inner city kids they basically had nothing before lacrosse but once they were introduced to lacrosse it gave them a sense of fulfillment and purpose. One kid even states in the article, “I always had the heart and mind to be successful, but I didn’t have the support,” said Davon Johnson, a senior who will attend the college prep school Vermont Academy next year on nearly a full scholarship. Lacrosse “changed my life,” he said. “It helped me find direction.” Showing that this game was able to alter this kids life and put him a great opportunity that he wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the game of lacrosse.
E367: Writing and Diversity 
Hi Brook!
I really like the direction you’re going in with this topic in that it’s not just a game for white and upper class males, as it is typically viewed, and the impact of this game for inner city kids. I think you hear about sports helping inner city kids all the time, but typically through football or baseball or basketball. I think this article is a perfect fit for your topic and think it’d be really cool to read about this sport in the same impactful light as other sports.
LikeLike
Brook,
This article was really great – I found myself smiling as I read it. I’m a sucker for a good pick me up story that talks about helping students turn their bad grades into honor rolls and keeping them out of the streets and bringing them into the classroom.
My sister plays lacrosse, and we actually have a subscription to a lacrosse magazine that comes monthly to our house. I don’t play the sport, so I never had any need to check out the magazines…until I noticed an interesting cover page on one of the magazines on my kitchen counter.
The cover article read something along the lines of how lacrosse is a white-dominated sport, and that kids of color were joining lacrosse teams more and more, changing the name of the game and what lacrosse looks like from the outside. I delved into the article and was not surprised when it pulled up factual statistics about how lacrosse is mainly a sport for rich, white kids. Even though this information didn’t surprise me, I did, for some reason, stop to think about the lack of colored people on my high school’s lacrosse teams (and various other teams) and realized that it truly is dominated by white kids – why?
The answer is most likely funding, and being raised on the sport, and coming from richer, better off neighborhoods and school districts that will actually provide the school with funding for a team and get kids interested in the sport. There are still schools in my district that don’t have cross country teams, field hockey teams, and lacrosse teams (these schools being a lot poorer than the others in the district).
It’s disheartening to think about, but also reassuring to see programs such as the one in the article are being created. It’s cool to see that they are trying to change the way we look at certain sports and are trying to get people of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds into areas where they don’t necessarily feel welcomed.
This article was fun to read and I believe your final essay will be really interesting – with your deep connection to the sport, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of good insights.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brook,
I agree with Ashley that this is a heartening story. But I’m struck that the emphasis of the article seems to move in two directions: Yes, playing lacrosse changes the students in Harlem, but involving more diverse players also changes how the sport is perceived. This would seem to complicate notions of sponsorship—since the people being sponsored are “changing the face” of the sport they getting involved with.
Joe
LikeLike