Missouri lacrosse coach details openly gay lifestyle

by **KnoxVegas** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:06 am

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/04/07/gay.coach.ap/index.html

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Frustrated Coach had nowhere else to turn.

Alone with his secret, the college lacrosse coach sat down at his computer seeking others like himself: gay men who played and coached competitive, high-level sports but remained trapped in the closet.

As the article states, this has already been discussed here. But it is an article about someone in our community on SI.com. Good on ya, Kyle!

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by **Timbalaned** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:17 pm

really good article, sad it took something like this for our league to get noticed by big time SI, but I applaud Kyle in everything he does. Good job and I am sure I am not the only one when I say the MCLA is completely behind you 100%.

by **Steno** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:27 pm

Does anyone else find it odd that the official in the article was only given a year suspension for his hateful remarks, and continued to ref CHILDREN'S lacrosse?

Personally, I wouldn't want an openly spiteful bigot reffing my hypothetical son's game.

by **Beta** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:40 pm

Steno wrote:Does anyone else find it odd that the official in the article was only given a year suspension for his hateful remarks, and continued to ref CHILDREN'S lacrosse?

Personally, I wouldn't want an openly spiteful bigot reffing my hypothetical son's game.

He was a coach for High School freshman, as well.

by **Chicolaxalum34** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:52 pm

The comments by the official were extremely uncalled for, but this article was very eye-opening. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it would be to be gay in a team sport. Teammates crackin gay jokes, talkin about girls they been with, things like that would probably make it hard to deal with. Also that would probabaly make it hard to come out of the closet like the coach did. He showed a lot heart standing up letting everyone know who he is. I don't know the man but his record leads me to belive that he's a good coach. I think as team athletes, we have a long way to go. It is for sure that there are gay lacrosse players out there that are afraid to come out in fear of being shunned by the team or retaliated against on the field. But this is not limited to Lax, this can be seen in every sport, more and more athletes are coming out after their careers are over, but back to the coach, he did it while he was actively coaching which lends to a backlash, such as in the article they mentioned "negative recruiting," hopefully the coach will continue the good fight and hang in there, hopefully we will not see in any violent reaction to this.

by **KnoxVegas** on Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:13 pm

I have received several requests for it so here is the link to last summer's thread on Kyle's coming out:
http://forums.collegelax.us/viewtopic.php?t=5473&highlight=

by **GeorgiaLacrosse** on Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:26 pm

Steno wrote:Does anyone else find it odd that the official in the article was only given a year suspension for his hateful remarks, and continued to ref CHILDREN'S lacrosse?

Personally, I wouldn't want an openly spiteful bigot reffing my hypothetical son's game.

along with the one year suspension. I think that the ref should not be allowed to ever ref a game in which Hawkins is one of the teams coaches. Or at the very least i think that coach hawkins should be able to request that he isn't assigned this ref again. I've heard of Highschool coaches requesting that a particular ref not be allowed to ref anymore of their games, but i don't know how that would work in college.