Shortage of black athletes

Girls in inner cities are not persuaded to play softball.
RALEIGH NEWS & amp; OBSERVER
RALEIGH, N.C. -- When Virginia Elite coach Kerri Cobb called to invite Tara Johnson to join the Elite's first-year 18-and-under travel softball program, Johnson's first question was an important one.
"Will I be the only black girl?" Johnson asked.
She was surprised when the answer was no.
At the PONY Fast-pitch Nationals this week in Raleigh and Cary, 19 states are represented by more than 250 teams. Standing at Raleigh's Walnut Creek Softball Complex, though, it is impossible to miss how few black players there are on the field.
The lack of black players at the tournament is by no means unique in PONY softball. In the NCAA's three divisions, 6.5 percent of the 2002-03 softball players were black, according to the latest available NCAA figures.
The N.C. High School Athletic Association does not keep race statistics, but associate executive director Rick Strunk said observation has taught him there aren't many black athletes playing softball or baseball in the state.
J.L. Hayes, PONY's North Carolina recreation director, said PONY will address ways to bring more black girls into softball at its national meeting in September.
Definite problem
"There is a definite problem," Hayes said. "There are a number of reasons for it."
Hayes said a lot of inner-city recreation departments don't offer fast-pitch softball nor do some middle schools.
So by the time black girls are introduced to fast-pitch in high schools, their white counterparts have been playing the sport for six to eight years, Hayes said.
"Many times, black girls are told to run track, play basketball or cheer," Hayes said.
"They have no idea that this sport is open to them and that they can do well in it."
For Johnson, most of her softball career has been spent playing as the only black girl on a team. It doesn't faze her anymore.
"Not a lot of black people play [softball or baseball] because they think it's a white sport," Johnson said.
"You just get used to it," said Tina Ruffin, a Smithfield, Va., softball player with the 18-and-under Carolina Heat, based on the Outer Banks, N.C. Ruffin, the only black player on her softball team, will attend N.C. A & amp;T on a tennis scholarship in the fall.
The Virginia Elite has three black team members. Cobb, who is white, worked in 2000 as the head coach at historically black Virginia State. Now a private instructor in Richmond, Va., she knows just how rare it is to have three black players on one team.
Johnson said people have told her she should be playing basketball or running track, sports with higher percentages of black athletes.
Need to prove herself
Although she doesn't specifically think of it as pressure, Johnson feels a need to prove herself.
"I have to do well because I'm the only [black] person out there," Johnson said.
Another black softball player, Keshia Robinson from Manassas, Va., said she occasionally gets teased by friends for playing softball -- they call her a "white black girl."
Mostly, though, her friends are supportive.
"As long as I do good," Robinson said. "They just say, 'Rep for the black people.'"
Johnson and teammates JoLisa Jones and Nikki Antoine said they've never had a problem with racism on the field.
Of course, some prejudices and stereotypes live on.
"People just figure we should be playing basketball," said Antoine, an 18-year-old from Richmond, Va. "The three of us, we're on this team because we're fast. If you're not fast, people think you're fast because you're black."
For many of the players at Walnut Creek Thursday, race was much less important than a win or a loss.
"It doesn't matter what race you are," Ruffin said.
"We're here because we love the sport."