The Shakerite VOL 91 ISSUE I

Graphs by Lauren Sheperd
white students. Lorain is the LEL opponent with
the greatest population of white students with 21.7
percent, compared to Shaw, which has a 98.8 percent
Black student population.
Senior cross country runner DeAndre Hall is a
minority in his sport and said GCC opponents made
him aware of it. “People on my team are really cool.
They accepted me as family as soon as I got there
as a freshman. They welcomed me and were happy
I was a part of the team. Against other teams, I get
these kind of looks [from opponents] looking at me
saying, ‘Why am I out here?’ or ‘Why am I running?’
They don’t think I’ve got the chance to be great,”
Hall said.
Other athletes, who are white, said they were not
affected by the league change as much as the Black
players were. Junior field hockey and lacrosse player
Maddie Lenahan said the field hockey season was
not affected by the league change. “I believe some
of the schools we play in lacrosse have changed, as
we are not playing [Hathaway Brown] this season.
I was shocked, because they are one of our biggest
rivals. I do not have a strong opinion on the league
switch, because it has not affected me yet,” she said.
With the lacrosse season coming to an end, Lenahan
noted how returning to the LEL has affected
competition. “I’ve noticed that the scores have been
really unbalanced, and the competition level isn’t
the same as previous years. The league change has
resulted in us winning by 10 or more goals. Although
winning is fun, I wish there was better competition
for us to play,” she said.
Senior field hockey player Maggie Carter said returning
to the LEL did not affect her much. “In the
Cleveland area, there are only a couple field hockey
teams, so for my sport we were not affected by the
league change. We continued to play teams that we
have always played, which are just the schools that
have field hockey. Field hockey at Shaker and in
most schools is a predominantly white sport, so we
have never really had issues with treatment from
opposing teams or slurs,” she said.
Despite increasing awareness of systemic racism
and racial inequity, slurs directed at Black athletes
persist at every level.
Coach Young said, “As you can see with the state
of our country, we have a lot of work to do with racial
equality.”
Spring 2021 THE SHAKERITE 57