Abstract
This scenario focuses on the experience of Tia, a Black woman recruited from California to play softball in Texas. Tia’s experience going from a very diverse team to one that is almost exclusively White and from the South is difficult. She is navigating issues of race, regionalism, and transition in her first year. Adding to the challenges she is facing is the fact that she and her roommate (a White woman from Texas with whom Tia was competing for the starting shortstop position on the team) were not well suited to live together. While Tia has had the support of another Black woman, Coach Morris – her hitting coach – throughout her first three years on the team, Coach Morris is leaving at the end of Tia’s junior year.
Keywords: Race, regionalism, athletics
Primary Characters
Tia (she, her, hers) Black woman; junior; short stop; from California but attending college in Texas.
Jenny (she, her, hers) white woman; short stop; Tia’s roommate their first year; from Texas.
Coach Morris (she, her, hers) Black woman; hitting coach.
Head Coach (he, him, his) white man, head coach.
Context
Tia is a Black woman in her junior year of college who was recruited from California to play softball for a university in Texas. She struggled a great deal her first year on campus with the transition from the west coast. At home in California the teams on which she played were incredibly diverse. For example in high school, Tia played with a roster of 15 girls and 2/3 were People of Color and 1/3 were bilingual. She learned how to work with people from different backgrounds to reach a common goal – winning games. Tia was able to find her community with her high school team. She is now one of three Women of Color on her team (the other players are Latinx students) and one of two students not from the South.
During her first year in Texas, Tia roomed with Jenny. Both women were competing for the starting position at shortstop. Tia tried to build a relationship with Jenny, but Jenny would not engage in any significant way with Tia. When Tia asked if Jenny wanted to go to the field to take reps with her, Jenny said she was too busy, but later Tia found out that on several occasions when Jenny refused to go with Tia, she would go to the field to practice with other White women from the team.
Tensions rose in the room as the women had very different musical preferences and developed different groups of friends. Several times when Tia was in the room studying, Jenny would be on the phone with her mom or with other friends complaining that Tia’s friends were “loud and obnoxious” or “rude and disrespectful.” One evening when Tia was trying to sleep, Jenny had friends over and they spent a half an hour complaining about Tia before Tia got out of bed and left the room to go sleep on a friend’s futon.
The next day Jenny said, “That was rude – what you did last night. You stormed out and slammed the door. I don’t know how you were raised or what it means to be polite where you’re from, but that’s not how we do courtesy in Texas! Plus, it’s not like we were nearly as loud as your friends!” The conversation escalated to an argument that included the music and friends issues as well as issues with hair. Jenny complained, “You take FORVEVER to do your hair! It’s so annoying.” To which Tia responded, “I’d rather take time with my hair than have it clog up the shower drain like your nasty hair does!”
Throughout the experience and the next two years, Tia often turned to Coach Morris, the hitting coach and the only Black woman as a part of the coaching staff. When the women on the team would talk about putting ribbons in their hair – which didn’t work in Tia’s hair – or would make other racially ignorant or insensitive comments, Tia could share a look with Coach Morris and she knew that at least one person understood her. Tia even noticed her teammates and sometimes the fans would expect Tia to make tremendously difficult plays, but when a White player made a similar play – or even one that was not nearly as challenging – the team and crowd would break into sustained cheering.
Tia sometimes joked with Coach Morris about “White noise” on the team – their term for the White players trying to change their language or way of talking on the rare occasions when they engaged with Tia or the other Black women on the team (who graduated by the time Tia was a junior) or with the two remaining Latinx women on the team. Tia said to Coach Morris, “I want to tell them, ‘You don’t have to use slang when you’re talking for me to understand you. I understand you when you’re three feet away talking to the other White players. You sound sort of ridiculous right now.’” Coach Morris laughed and shared similar stories and said, “Well, keep developing patience. That won’t change after you graduate. It still happens to me all the time.”
One day about three weeks before the first game of the season, the head coach called Tia into his office. The day before, Coach Morris told Tia that she was leaving for a coaching position at a larger school. She told Tia to stay in touch and that she knew Tia was going to have an amazing season. Tia was devastated, but tried to be happy for Coach Morris.
The head coach said, “Tia, I know you and Coach Morris were close and that you will miss her, but I want you to know the coaching staff is still here to support the team. We’re bringing in a great new batting coach. He’s coming from South Carolina and has worked with the best. I just want us to communicate because I’ve noticed you are always causing problems with your teammates. We can’t have this distraction from you going forward. We just need you to smile and do your job like you always have – like you signed up to do. Sound good?”
Discussion Questions
- What could the coaching staff or others on campus have done to help Tia and Jenny with their conflicts as roommates and teammates in Tia’s first year?
- How should Tia respond to the head coach’s most recent comments?
- What options does Tia have for coping with the tensions on the team? What are strategies Tia might use (or the head coach might provide) to find support for the rest of Tia’s time on the team?
Discussion
Being a part of any group or community does not necessarily equate to feeling a sense of belonging and connection. Each student brings their own identities, perspectives, and lived experiences into the groups of which they are a part. Part of what they bring along with them are past experiences with the group itself as is the case with Tia and Jenny as roommates.
There are issues in this scenario around Tia’s need for support, but other issues are present as well. What sorts of training or education might be helpful to the head coach and other coaching staff as they are working with their team as a team, but also as individual players? When you have had to go through transitions as people who were key supporters moving to new jobs or positions, what strategies did you find helpful?
Biographical Sketches
Diamond Brown (she, her, hers) is Director of Educational Services at Florida State University and a graduate of the Counselor Education/Student Affairs Master’s program at Clemson University. She also completed the Athletic Leadership Certificate at Clemson. Diamond was a high school and college (softball) athlete and brings that experience as well as her perspective as a Woman of Color to this case study.
Sherece Smith (she, her, hers) is the Assistant Director for Inclusive Excellence of the Breakthrough Scholars Program at Clemson University. She is also a graduate of the Counselor Education/Student Affairs Master’s program at Clemson University and completed the Athletic Leadership Certificate at Clemson. Sherece was a high school and college athlete (volleyball and basketball) and brings that experience and her lived experience as a Woman of Color to this case study.