Homophobia and Negative Recruitment

“Family-oriented”. A phrase that, at a glance, seems harmless enough but could potentially be used promote heterosexuality to recruits while being visited by collegiate recruiters and coaches. Homophobia has completely polluted today’s recruiting trails, trying to promote to athlete’s that they are indeed a “straight-program”. Gay rights activists, coaches, and players argue that certain phases that seemingly are meant to boost a program’s reputation are instead used to prove a program’s image that they only promote heterosexuality.

ESPN The Magazine recently ran an article "On Homophobia and Recruiting" written by Luke Cyphers and Kate Fagan concerning the issues facing many homosexual athletes today during recruitment visits. The article highlights a situation in which "family-oriented" recruiting was used to try to persuade a recruit away from schools that had lesbian coaches on their staffs. A former Iowa State Cyclone basketball player recalls when Coach Bill Fenelly continually mentioned that his program was "family-oriented" and that at other schools, which was recruiting her as well, had "something going on you don't know", which the recruit believed was aimed at the lesbian coaches on the staffs. After joining the Cyclones, the former player says the coaches still pressed for his players to promote Iowa State's "environment" to any recruits visiting, which was that the Cyclones employed a married head coach and straight assistants.

Tactics such as these have received much criticism from Gay activtists, but coaches deny that any hidden agenda's are behind their "family-oriented" recruiting tactic. "If using the word 'family' is viewed as negative recruiting, then we're guilty, because we say that. I don't think it's negative. Maybe I'm the only one in America who thinks that's ridiculous to say," said Fennelly. "My staff is being penalized because they're married and have families," he continued. Fennelly isn't the only one trying to defend themselves on this subject, Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma stated "If that's the direction people want to take it, they've lost their grip on reality," on the subject of the focus of family in recruiting.



The article continues to explore other forms of negative recruiting, such as African American discrimination and criticisms of other coaches, and is a very interesting read. I feel that this is a very large issue today for all women's collegiate sports, not just Basketball, and more light needs to be shed on the subject. An athlete's sexuality shouldn't limit what sports or universities they're allowed to be apart of. Unfortunately, my opinion won't change the minds of recruiters and recruits a like. Will this be an issue that plagues women's sports forever? Or will the subject eventually be non-existant? Only time will tell.