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Serving the scholastic field hockey and lacrosse community since 1998Archive for May 18, 2022
May 18, 2022 — A further scar in the lacrosse community
Monday night, a play-in game for the main bracket of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II Region 6 Tournament was held. In the contest, Pepper Pike Orange (Ohio) defeated Mentor Lake Catholic (Ohio) by a score of 19-7.
But that masks a couple of ugly things that happened during the game.
After the match, it was disclosed that a visitor to the game (which happened at Orange) used racial slurs during the game, directed at the Orange team.
What is getting the lacrosse community upset, only days after a weekend of violence against minority communities in California and New York, is the fact that one of the Lake County players had a swastika on the back of his calf for the first half of the game. A student photographer working for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s web presence captured the image.
In the last 24 hours, both superintendents have released statements condemning the incidents.
But I’m not so sure this is enough.
It’s up to all of us, the country and body politic, to ask one question. How is it that young adults like Dylan Roof, Adam Lanza, Payton Gendron, and this lacrosse player ever get to thinking about radicalizing themselves to such a degree that white supremacy has become normalized?
Now, I understand that the swastika has been used for centuries as a symbol of peace. Regrettably, the rise of the Third Reich and the murder of 11 million people at their hands has changed forever any connotations of the symbol in any and all of its forms.
Your Founder has actually been in places which were built before World War II, and have seen swastikas in tiles for floors and hearths. It’s pretty jarring, even to this day.
Which makes you wonder what the student-athlete and the school were thinking.
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