Tina Sloan Green has been in lacrosse long enough to see a gradual growth of the sport she loves. Sloan Green, a National Lacrosse Hall of Famer and former Temple head coach, found the game of lacrosse in Philadelphia and developed a passion for it soon after.

A gifted athlete in both field hockey and lacrosse, Sloan Green was the first African American woman on both U.S. national teams.

Years later, Sloan Green became the first African American to lead a women’s college lacrosse team at Temple. She coached the Owls from 1975-1992 — a historic run that included NCAA national championships in 1984 and 1988.

Read more on Sloan Green’s historic career.

Although the sport has grown in the past 50 years, Sloan Green knows there is still work to do. The recent national conversations regarding race have magnified the fact that lacrosse is not as diverse as it can be, and Sloan Green is hoping to take part in change.

She spoke with US Lacrosse Magazine about a historic 2020 and what coaches can do to help lead our sport forward.

How have you coped with the tumultuous summer as it relates to racial injustice?

“I’m 76 years old, and I’ve been involved in this for 40-something years. We know what needs to happen in order to enact change. Sometimes it’s very difficult for people to make changes, and they want to do it when they’re comfortable. The great thing that’s going on now is we’re having a conversation about race. It’s been difficult for some people to have that conversation. I’m here for a reason, to connect the past to the present. Not many people are here to tell our stories, what happened back then. It’s just history.

“If nothing else, what has happened with this virus and everything, it’s causing people to really think and have a dialogue. Not only are black folks suffering from this pandemic, but now it’s extending itself to others. The people my age and the younger people are feeling it. This could happen to my child, to my parents. I’m hoping this will create a dialogue.”

Did you struggle to figure out what to say about these issues?

“I wanted to know whether I was on the right track with my thoughts, or am I out of it? My former players and family assured me that, ‘What you’re saying is correct.’ You have to go beyond tokenism. I have to look at my life. My life is proof that you can take somebody who was never exposed to the sport and give them an opportunity. They could become a national team player. They could become a coach. They could become a professor at a Division I university. Opportunity is the key. That’s what discouraged me the most. I was the first, but I never was the only.”

Many people have referenced the need to be color blind. What do you think of that idea?

“The idea of being color blind and no one sees color, that’s bologna. If you don’t see color, there’s something wrong. Once you surround yourself with all kinds of people, you go beyond that and look at people. Diversity is a blessing. It’s invigorating and creates and a different dynamic.”

What can coaches do to continue making this sport more diverse and inclusive?

“What are you trying to do, if you’re a coach? You’re trying to win, so you want the best talent. You’re not going to get the best talent if everyone is not exposed to the sport. You’re limiting yourself.

“First, I’d tell them to look at the area where their university is. Are there athletes of color in that community? If so, reach out and try to bring those kids onto the university and go to where they are and create a program. We have to get back to the philosophy that athletes can play more than one sport. I’ve had several players that didn’t play lacrosse beforehand, but they were great athletes. There’s still a situation where you can create a good lacrosse player from a basketball or field hockey player. Now, when we have scholarships and aid, it’s economically feasible to play multiple sports.

“You have to look at two things — the system. Coaches and players are starting to realize, do we really need to play the same sport year-round? Are we spending so much money sending people out recruiting? Now, you can watch that player on Zoom, so you don’t really need to be going out there and spending money on flights and all that. Pay the coach a decent salary and students can see the university virtually. They can talk to the coach. I really do think it’s going to be the desire — people have to believe that diversity is a positive thing. It’s going to be the elite schools that’s going to make it more desirable for the public schools.”

“Also, why aren’t we getting more female coaches, female African American coaches? The ones that we have gotten, why haven’t they advanced?”

How can diversity help a student-athlete?

“You have to want to expand the sport at this point. It starts at the top. It has to work itself down, and everyone has to be in tune. The bottom line is, if we’re talking about money, like everything else, the black race has been consumers, and we also are good storytellers and musicians and singers. That’s been proven. There’s a creativity that is present. There are ways that we can quickly advance the game, but we have to want to do it. You have to see the value. To me, diversity is just as valuable to the dominant group as to the non-dominant group. I look at my area and the players. There are some that have never experienced a black teammate or a black person, so to live with me for four years was an experience for them and their parents, as well. To have to participate in things with the support of the coach and university, that was a plus for them. When they went out for jobs in teaching or medicine or law, they weren’t strangers to people of color. It wasn’t a scary thing. Sport is a vehicle that can really diversify the thought process of your athletes and coaches.”

From your experience, what models have worked in getting more children in evolved in the game?

“During school, they should have a quality physical education program, and then after school, everyone has to go out for a sports team or theater or music. Especially now, they’re saying, ‘You city kids need to pass these tests. You don’t need sports, you don’t need the arts.’ That in itself is very disappointing. Through my development, that’s what saved me. I never played organized sports growing up. I grew up in a black community in Philadelphia with great parents and a religious background. I became comfortable with myself and who I was. I didn’t realize the impact of race.

“I was just having fun. I had no intention of being a US Lacrosse player or a USA Field Hockey player. I was given the opportunity to be exposed to the environment and playing sports and going to class with people. There, you can compare your abilities to someone else’s abilities. Then, you realize, ‘Oh, I’m pretty good at this.’ Given an opportunity, kids are sooner than later going to find what they’re good at. Don’t penalize the folks who don’t have the economic means.”

How much have we progressed as a sport in the past 50 years?

“I’m just disappointed because I didn’t think we’d need the Black Women in Sport Foundation [which she co-founded in the early 1990s] by now. But we might need it more than ever. That saddens me.”

Do social media and television help raise awareness of black athletes in all sports?

“I had never even seen a lacrosse game until I got to West Chester. I had never seen lacrosse. I was limited. Now, they’re using television to sell products and make money. Not a lot of black people played golf, but they saw Tiger Woods and they’d buy the gear and the shirts. They’d watch the matches. They never had a chance to play because they didn’t have access to the facility, but they bought the gear. That’s critical. In reality, a lacrosse stick doesn’t cost that much in comparison to some other sports. Once you learn the basics, you can be so creative. You don’t have to depend on just NBC or ABC. You can’t stream it yourself. You can reach a lot of young people that way.

“Television and social media can have a big influence if we choose to use it. And journalism as well. Women’s lacrosse, if given the opportunity to have the best talent out there with these club teams, and make it accessible, the money is going to flow. They have to want to do it.”