The Sunday night June 3 edition of "SportsCenter" (11 p.m. EDT with many repeats) will have about a 10-minute segment on Kyle Hawkins, the lacrosse "Frustrated Coach." Both Cyd and I spoke with reporter Greg Garber for background. We are not on camera but Outsports is mentioned a couple of times and they might even show Kyle posting on the Discussion Board.

Garber also wrote a companion piece that is up on ESPN.com

Note: When I first posted this the segment was set for May 27.

Very good (and lengthy) piece on ESPN.com. It's good to see them giving the story and Hawkins significant coverage.

Cool, I'm glad Coach Hawkins has hit the ground running and has lots of opportunities open to him. I hope he can end up in a slightly more liberal area with a full time job that isn't dictated by the players. That just doesn't seem right that the players have so much power, even if it is a club team. You're not always going to like your coach, but that's obviously not the point a lot of the time if you are winning.


Hey Jim, has Outsports traffic picked up significantly the last few months with John Amechi and a lot of press on Coach Hawkins?

Note: ESPN has now changed the date of the first airing to Sunday June 3.

Did they reschedule it from May to June because June is gay pride month?

Damn! Cocah Kyle is taken? I always miss out on the good ones!

I'm a straight Christian male who saw the piece on ESPN about coach Hawkins. My heart went out to the guy and I hope he lands on his feet. I will certainly try to follow his coaching career from hear on out and wish the best for him.

Hey Cordawg:
Welcome and thanks for such a terrific post. When Kyle first posted here his stories were so dramatic that a lot of people thought he was a fake. We realized it was all true when he came out on the board. The saddest part of the story were his parents disowning him.

Kudos to ESPN for airing Kyle's story - they seemed to fairly present the facts, both before and after his firing, which is not surprising given their past history and recent handling of John Amaechi's coming out. Several comments on ESPN.com's message board immediately after the initial SportsCenter segment were ignorant and homophobic, but at least they seem to be in the minority.

I agree with Jim wholeheartedly regarding both the sadness of Kyle's parents disowning him along with commending Cordawg for such a terrific post. The person most deserving of our thanks, of course, is Coach Hawkins for all the courage and tenacity that he has continued to display. The school (AND players) who are fortunate enough to have Kyle as their lacrosse coach in years to come will truly benefit from his presence.

Certainly the most disturbing part of the story to me was the reaction of his parents. Hopefully they have a change of heart and are able to reconcile their relationship with coach Hawkins but it doesn't look good. While I've never been faced with this sort of rejection it undoublty is a picture of what many people in the gay community face often. It's very unfortuante...

cordawg,

I, too, wanted to say welcome.

I always worry about stories like this for two reasons.. 1- I feel like it prevents others from coming out. I think the vast majority of people don't have any issues or any problems and people are accepting. Unfortunately, that doesn't make a sexy story. You wish somoene could do a story about someone coming out, still playing, still coaching and nothing changing, but that isn't a story...

2- I'm surprised that ESPN even did a story on this ... they don't even cover DII and DIII sports, let alone club sports. It seems like ESPN is searching for some sort of controversial or gay angle. It isn't a story and it does make it seem like a certain agenda is being pushed, which I think is ultimately detrimental towards acceptance from those who may be less-than accepting... kinda the whole "boy who cried wolf" mentality. (and yes, I know they were working on this even beofre he was fired and so the story changed mid-stream)

Sure, ESPN doesn't cover college sports for the smaller schools, Div. II, III...but Sportscenter does show all kinds of features on various subjects at all levels -- not just controversial ones. There was the young girl who last year got to play in an LPGA event so that her sick mother (who just recently died) could watch. There was the kid who was the manager of his high school team (who had some sort of medical condition, I forget -- mildly autistic?) who got into a game and suddenly starting pouring in three-pointers. Others are more sad. (I guess the happier stories tend to stick with me more.) They also did a story on Andrew Goldstein, the openly gay lacrosse goalie who scored a rather legendary goal in a game in college. He's now in the pro lacrosse league (see the Outsports 30 Jocks in 30 Days feature). "You wish somoene could do a story about someone coming out, still playing, still coaching and nothing changing, but that isn't a story..." Well, Goldstein is exactly that story.

And the fact that some of these ESPN features happen to have a "gay angle," controversial or not, is wrong because...?

I have no problem with Goldstein's story .. it was good story about an elite DI goalie (by the way, he is not on a MLL roster anymore) ---

But this story... my problem isn't that it is about a club team (although they should note that more and the fact that club is a different beast and college kids can hire/fire coaches (many of which are volunteer positions anyways) and decide how their teams are run).... but the reason it is wrong is because if you go to ESPN.com and the headline of the story asks if this story is a "cautionary tale".... From what I can gather there is no one involved in this situation that thinks he was fired beacuse of his sexuality. It's similar to how women's leaders are concerned that when a woman makes a false rape claim that other women won't be believed or will be afraid to come forward. It is similar to how, when people play the race card a lot, it becomes a something that some just dismiss. Now, let me be clear, I'm not saying that Hawkins is doing any of this -- he isn't ... I'm saying that the way this story was picked up could be detrimental because a- it implies someone was fired because they were gay when they probably won't and will discourage people from coming out in the future ..... and b- it implies someone was fired because they were gay when they probably won't which lessens the charge of such firings in the future. Again, this is about ESPN's portrayl, not Hawkins.

This is what coach Hawkins himself says:



So while no one involved says flat-out he wasn't fired because he's gay, not everyone has dismissed it entirely. Of course the players and school officials aren't going to come right out and admit it. They aren't that stupid. And considering his .686 winning percentage and that 2007 was his first losing season in his entire time at Missouri, there's no way they can simply say it's because he's not a good coach.

The story didn't imply anything. It merely asks the question. And it's a question that must be asked.

It almost sounds like you'd prefer gay people to not stand up for themselves, to not fight back if they think they're treated unfairly, because it might create a backlash for others who are still in the closet. Sorry, but I have very little compassion for them.

Welcome and thnks for posting...We need more "normal" Christians in this world!! Check out Sojourners.com, if you are not familiar with them...