For all of the attention given to diversity issues in college athletics during the last several years, the involvement of Hispanics and Latinos has failed to keep pace with that of women and African-Americans.
The small number of Hispanic participants in athletics is an important consideration in any circumstances since they already constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the country. However, the concern is compounded with the knowledge that Hispanics will be the nation’s fastest-growing minority population during the next half-century. The number of Hispanics in the United States is expected to nearly triple from 46.7 million to 132.8 million between 2008 and 2050.
This coming wave will present the Association with a number of difficult challenges, but experts say that it also presents a great opportunity.
For now, the tide is at low ebb. The 2006-07 NCAA student-athlete ethnicity report shows that Hispanic males and females make up just 3.9 and 3.6 percent, respectively, of all student-athletes across all three divisions. It’s even worse for administrators and coaches, with only 1.9 percent and 3.4 percent. Hispanics make up about 15 percent of the total U.S. population.
Many reasons account for the limited presence of Hispanics in college sports and higher education in general. Denee Barracato, formerly an assistant director of athletics at Adelphi and now a member of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship staff, ticks off several: lack of role models; high rates of gang involvement, teen pregnancy and dropouts; and a general lack of understanding about how the college application process works.
“A lot of the parents are first generation,” Barracato said. “At a very young age, they were put to work and asked to be care givers, so they don’t know the first thing to do with a college application or where to go for scholarships and grants.”
Other contributing factors include lack of financial resources and the effects of cultural issues.
St. Francis (New York) Athletics Director Irma Garcia knows those issues first-hand. She doesn’t just face down financial crunches in her role as the first and currently, the only Hispanic female to lead a Division I program. She lived the challenges as a student-athlete. One of eight children in her family, she was the first to go to college. Her parents couldn’t afford it, even with her scholarship to play basketball, so Garcia also sold papers on weekdays and worked as a clerk on weekends.
Gloria Nevarez, senior associate athletics director at Oklahoma, also knows the effects of perception.
“Growing up, my grandparents did not support or understand,” Nevarez said, “one, because I was female, and, two, participating in sport was a frivolous activity that could jeopardize your ability to take care of yourself and your family.”
The ‘acculturation’ effect
If the barriers to increasing the Hispanic/Latino student-athlete population sound familiar, they should. African-Americans face similar hurdles, although they now make up the largest block of student-athletes behind whites overall.
Charlotte Westerhaus, NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion, sees clear parallels between Blacks and Hispanics, such as first-generation students and them not understanding what it takes to succeed in college. Then there’s what she calls “acculturation” – when individuals are not only the minority in terms of race or ethnicity, but also are isolated because of the limited number of those who share their backgrounds. In other words, there are few Hispanic/Latino students on the campus or in the community.
“Those are some of the issues that a lot of students face, whether they are African-American or international students, that can have a negative effect on Hispanic/Latino individuals’ matriculation,” Westerhaus said.
The comparisons extend to Black and Hispanic administrators and the excruciatingly slow progress in adding numbers at the senior-level management level. Having been in the business for more than 25 years, UCLA’s Dan Guerrero said he remembers at the beginning counting on one hand the number of Hispanic ADs in Division I. Not much has changed since.
African-Americans have advanced, however, sometimes by pushing their concerns and agendas through professional affiliations and groups. Oklahoma’s Nevarez would like to see Hispanic athletics administrators take the same route.
“That’s how the African-American groups that are so strong now got started – a couple of administrators discussing common issues,” she said.
The language barrier
Hispanics, however, face a number of unique challenges, and there are points at which the experiences, challenges and frameworks of reference for Blacks and Latinos diverge.
Cultural contexts and language are especially significant. Higher education plays a much different role in the United States compared to countries with large Spanish-speaking populations or where Spanish is the native language, Westerhaus said. Internationally, athletics is more likely to be linked to nationality, not to a school or to higher education. Because of that distinction, she said the NCAA will have to do a better job of stressing the connection between intercollegiate athletics and how a college education and athletics experiences benefit those who participate.
Paying close attention to cultural contexts also is critical, said Barracato, a frequent presenter on the growing Hispanic influence in collegiate athletics. Argentineans aren’t the same as Colombians or Mexicans or Puerto Ricans. Umbrella terms such as “Latino” mask vast cultural diversity within the population.
“When I present, I often say be aware of who you’re speaking to and know the differences,” she said. “What they do have in common is language.”
That presents challenges in intercollegiate athletics circles, particularly in recruiting and navigating the initial-eligibility process. The NCAA is addressing the issue, producing a handful of publications in Spanish, among them the Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete. The NCAA gender-equity and Title IX brochures also are available in Spanish. Greg Dana, director of client relations for the NCAA Eligibility Center, said more Spanish communication is likely.
“We recognize the number of Spanish-speaking Americans, and we recognize that the number of Hispanic athletes in this country is growing,” he said. “Our role is to help young people open doors for themselves and get young people eligible to play Division I and Division II sports. Language should not be a barrier to that.”
To that end, Dana envisions an increasing array of services. He hopes to eventually add a Spanish-speaking individual to the Eligibility Center staff and to upgrade the Web site to translate material into Spanish.
Currently, however, the Spanish version of the brochure isn’t frequently viewed or requested. Though the Eligibility Center fields about 1,000 calls a day, only about one caller per month requests a Spanish translator. Nevertheless, Dana believes these and other services are important to have in place, given the national demographic trends.
Based on her own experience, Barracato believes that the language barrier will actually become less of a concern as more generations become acclimated to speaking English. Her grandparents moved to the United States from Puerto Rico. As a member of the third generation of her family to grow up here, she is bilingual, although she is more comfortable speaking English because that was the primary language used during her childhood.
“In time, once Hispanics start to grow in the country, they won’t need things translated because they will be ingrained in the American way and English will become their first language,” she said.
Opportunity trumps concerns
Though the challenges of managing the oncoming Hispanic/Latino population in college athletics are great, Westerhaus sees more to be gained than feared.
“Let’s look at the opportunities we have – and there are a lot of them – to enhance and grow the diversity of our student-athletes and our fan base,” she said.
That’s already happening at some campuses. UCLA’s Guerrero said that 10 to 15 percent of the Bruins’ student-athlete population is Hispanic, an increase from previous years. He also noted that the Hispanic population is understanding more about how athletics can lead to earning an education.
“Hispanics, for the most part, have tended to play certain kinds of sports like baseball and soccer,” he said. “Now you’re seeing participation in an array of sports that are being offered at the NCAA level and, consequently, there are more coming through the pipeline.”
NCAA research bears that out. Sports with the highest percentage of Hispanic males are volleyball, tennis and soccer, while rugby, water polo and fencing registered the highest percentage of Hispanic female student-athletes.
Guerrero said that UCLA is doing the same things every other athletics program is doing – evaluating student-athletes’ ability to perform athletically and make the grade at an institution that also is academically competitive.
“The fact that these Hispanic individuals are performing at a high level across the board – in baseball, track, basketball, soccer, all the Olympic sports – indicates the recognition that performing at a high level in high school and club sports can lead to a scholarship,” Guerrero said. “The fact that these individuals are proving that they can make it academically at an institution such as UCLA is a very positive sign to me.”
Still, some critics believe the Association is far from an “if you build it, they will come” scenario. Westerhaus said it’s taking too much for granted to assume that a population surge will automatically translate into an influx of Hispanic/Latino student-athletes within the Association.
“I think we’re going to have to do some things to foster and encourage what should be a surge,” said Westerhaus.
Garcia, the St. Francis athletics director, agrees that work must be done to entice Hispanics fully into the intercollegiate athletics fold. She said years of experience as a coach and athletics administrator have taught her that ethnic minorities seldom ask for favors or extra help. Consequently, they often miss important opportunities.
“If nobody tells them that these things are available to them, they are not going to come,” Garcia said. “The athletes who are out there are unbelievable, but they just don’t know. They need to be educated about all the different prospects that are out there for them.”
Some institutions, such as Virginia State University, are doing just that. Like many other Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are broadening their reach to include students with diverse backgrounds, Virginia State is seeking Hispanic/Latino students. Now in the third year of a university-wide outreach, Virginia State Athletics Director Peggy Davis said applications from prospective Hispanic/Latino students have increased notably since the start of the campaign.
In addition to participating in a local Hispanic college fair and hosting an annual open house at the university president’s home, Virginia State also has established relationships with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and has worked through the special assistant to the governor to help connect to other Hispanic organizations.
The athletics department, Davis said, has benefited from the outreach. Hispanics are found on several athletics teams and their presence draws others in the Hispanic/Latino community to athletics events.
“It’s helped us a lot,” Davis said. “You’ll have students who come to watch them play. Then their parents speak positively about Virginia State in their cultural settings.”
Whether they are prompted or come on their own, the number of Hispanic/Latino student-athletes across the nation certainly will increase in the coming years. Consequently, Oklahoma’s Nevarez believes now is the time to call more attention to this issue.
One of the NCAA’s first priorities, she said, should be to get a better handle on the actual numbers. In working toward establishing a Hispanic/Latino professional networking organization, she said she’s had trouble compiling an accurate list of Hispanic/Latino administrators, which suggests that the Association isn’t entirely familiar with the population within the membership.
“Our first order of business as administrators is to prepare ourselves to collect the information, find out what the numbers are and begin to ask what the needs are,” she said.
Guerrero also sees a need for mentors for Hispanic/Latino individuals within the enterprise. The key, he said, is for Hispanics to use athletics not only to acquire a degree but also to gain opportunities in the business world.
“As Hispanic athletics administrators move through the pipeline, I feel an obligation to help others by providing advice and guidance, and creating an environment where those young professionals feel there is a mechanism to grow and develop,” said Guerrero. “Whether that’s one-on-one or through an affiliation, it’s imperative.”
Don’t be fooled by the small number of Hispanics and Latinos on college campuses these days, cautioned Barracato, who predicts that in the near future, Hispanics will have a much greater presence in both academics and athletics. She said now is the time to focus on this issue, examine the needs and tap into the population in an effort to get the best out of them and their athletics abilities.
“The numbers are only going to grow,” said Barracato. “On college campuses, it will help us all learn to co-exist and learn from each other. If we can just help each other channel through some of the difficulties, we’ll be a better nation for it.”