Does "Family" Really Know Best?

The Title IX Blog posts about Iowa State coach, Bill Fennelly recruiting athletes to join his team because he says they are "family-oriented." The underlying factor in this article was the "family" being homophobic. People have used this kind of negative recruiting for years and have put it on their team that having a homosexual on it would make them uncomfortable around each other and, therefore, lower their performance. I truly believe that in order for a team to succeed, it does need to work together and be like a family. Everyone needs to stick together and accept who each and every person is, even if that is a homosexual. What if a coach was trying to persuade an athlete to come to his or her team and said, "Come here, we're like a family, in that, we are homophobic," to a homosexual athlete? No one wants to come home to a family dinner and feel unwelcome and same goes with a team, so in a sense, negative recruiting can definitely backfire.

There are many assumptions about women athletes being lesbians or bisexual, especially in sports like softball and basketball. I grew up participating in a sport that is generally thought of as a male sport, taekwondo. The kind of taekwondo that I did was not just self defense and learning moves, I was extremely competitive and all I did was fight. Olympic style fighting in taekwondo is very intense and all athletes, even females, are insanely tough. During my years at home with my team, it was like a family even though taekwondo is an individual sport and we don't all work together in the ring. Everyone is there for support and we all want what is best for our teammates, it didn't matter who they were outside of the gym.

I think it all comes down to insecurity. Coaches use negative recruiting because of the insecurity they may have in their team (or self) because if the coach really thought that school was the best place to play, he or she shouldn't have to bring down other teams to make them look good. Same goes for the stereotypes of female athletes being women, men were just feeling insecure because a woman could do what they could so these women just had to be lesbians. As time passes and our society grows (fingers crossed that it actually does), I think that female athletes and homosexuals will continue to become more accepted. We still have a long way to go but judging by how far we have come, I think we will get there.