After Atalanta

Greg Garber at ESPN.com has written a column on the firing of Missouri's club lacrosse coach Kyle Hawkins. It includes a video clip of Hawkins. The column is a pretty in-depth and provides a lot of details of Hawkins's coming out process including how his parents essentially disowned him. (He was removed from the family trust fund and they haven't spoken since he told them he is gay.) There are also repeated assertions from players, the team's faculty advisor, and even Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com that Hawkins's firing was not related to his homosexuality. Again, I believe them when they say the issue was not brought up in discussions. I even believe that they believe it had nothing to do with the decision. But I do not believe that the alleged negative coaching style was a recent development or that the concern over his poor representation of the university at away games was not influenced by his homosexuality. According Garber's column, which was written a we...

I was so pleased last month when I read about the University of Missouri having a gay (club) lacrosse coach for their men's team. There was a little bit of controversy but at the time of the article it seemed that most of the team was on board, along with the university. Not so much anymore. Hawkins has been fired . The article's sub-headline reads: Student-run lacrosse team lets gay coach go, says sexuality was not an issue. Yeah, right. The team asked Hawkins to resign and when he refused they fired him. Because lacrosse is a club sport the team has the power to make these decisions. Apparently they wanted to do it last year but because Hawkins had just come out they felt it would have looked like they were making the decision based on his homosexuality. A year didn't really make that much of a difference--it still seems pretty clear from the weak reasons they provided, that there was discomfort with Hawkins being gay. Karen Mitchell, a graduate student who serves as one...

This feature on Kyle Hawkins , a lacrosse coach at University of Missouri, who recently came out makes it seem like things are getting better in college athletics--even for gay men. Although there is plenty of sadness and struggle in the story about Hawkins who started coaching the club team at Missouri several years ago, the story presents Hawkins's coming out as a success and an event that has changed the lives of some of those involved. I am glad for Hawkins and his team and pleased that the University of Missouri did not waiver in their support of Hawkins. I am glad that the referee who called him a faggot and equated gay men with child molesters got suspended for a year. And I am glad this story was done by the AP and picked up outside of Missouri. I am a little concerned with some of the things Hawkins said about gay players--three actually who have decided to go to Mizzou to play for Hawkins--being short-sighted in choosing the program because the coach is gay. Hawkins stres...