Why some sports are not common among Latinos

By Lianne Maldonado

Special to La Voz

Melissa Diepold, a freshman on the Women’s Lacrosse team at the University of Maryland, stands out from many of her teammates. Unlike the majority of the Lacrosse team, Melissa comes from a Latino background. Why is it that Melissa’s sport, along with some others at the university, such as hockey and tennis, are not popular in the Latino community? In today’s society, the number of young Latinos participating in athletics has risen. However, certain sports still lack the presence of athletes containing Latino background. “It’s due to the lack of exposure,” Diepold said. Many, in fact, would agree with her. Athletics is extremely popular in Latin America, but the main sport automatically associated with Latinos is soccer. “Since the Latin American teams are great at soccer, I feel that Latino communities are comfortable with their soccer orientation, which is why most people think of the two together,” Diepold said.

Growing up, Melissa was brought up in a “soccer orientated” home. “Every time we would visit Peru, my entire family would play, including my mother’s brothers and my cousins,” Diepold said. If it were not for her friend who informed her about lacrosse tryouts at the age of 8, lacrosse would probably still be foreign to Melissa today, simply for the fact that is it not part of her family tradition. There are several different barriers, other than exposure, which influence why most young Latinos are interested solely in certain sports. Some of these barriers include role models, cultural differences, and economic class. Hockey is rarely played by Latinos for the simple fact that many countries in Latin America do not have any snow; making hockey less popular, according to an USA Today article. Some sports also require more equipment, such as lacrosse, making it harder to become involved for some inner city Latinos, who are often lower class. “All you need is a ball, basket, and yourself to practice,” London Woodbury, a U-Md. student said in reference to basketball being another common sport associated with Latinos. Exposing Latinos to the wide variety of sports has become a concern for many professional athletes today. There are different organizations focused on trying to prevent the lack of Latinos participating in sports unfamiliar to Latin American culture by introducing them to “foreign” sports. Latino Sports Ventures, an organization formed in the South Bronx, N.Y., ams to “fill the void in Latino communities in regards to promotion and marketing sports.” LSV is continuing to grow and has helped provide the youth of New York with more positive Latino role models. Brian Pensky, the head coach for the women’s soccer team at Maryland, feels that organizations such as these are very beneficial. “Everything in life is about opportunity. Not many Latino communities have the opportunities to experience the other sports because of socioeconomic reasons,” Pensky said. “There needs to be a way to expose these kids to the opportunity, and that simply will not just happen one day…like poof, magic!”

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Posted by admin on Apr 29 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry