PROVO, Utah -- In an NCAA womens soccer tournament that lacks a prohibitive favorite, BYU would hardly make an unlikely national champion. The Cougars are 16-2-1 entering a first-round game at home and have one of the nations leading goal scorers in recent United States national team call-up Ashley Hatch. The senior is the tip of the spear for an offense that ranks third in the nation in goals per game.It would be a good story if BYU, a No. 4 seed, wins its first national title. It just wouldnt be a shock for the ages.The unlikely story is that this particular program finds itself in such a position in the first place.This is a soccer program that logic indicates should exist on the margins nationally.It should be there according to conference affiliation -- it resides in the once mighty but increasingly mid-major West Coast Conference. It should be there by dint of its own history, which is barely two decades old in a state that was similarly slow to warm to womens soccer. And its religious makeup suggests the same: The Mormon faith with which BYU is synonymous comprises less than 2 percent of the U.S. population -- but the entirety of the soccer team.None of it adds up to a championship contender this season, let alone a fixture among the sports upper crust. But BYU is both. At a time when the struggles of former national champions Santa Clara and Portland underscore how difficult it is for programs beyond major conferences to thrive, BYU keeps getting better, achieving a 80-17-9 record over the past five seasons and earning seeds among the top 16 teams in the NCAA tournament twice in that span. BYU opens its title pursuit Friday (ESPN3, 9 ET) against UNLV.We call it the bubble here, BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. We like to be in our safe bubble sometimes.Who knows how much of it would have happened, or at least how quickly it would have happened, if Rockwood had been just a little better at basketball. Although she was born in a hospital less than a mile from the sideline on which she now coaches, Rockwood grew up in Oregon. She wanted to play basketball at BYU. Instead, after playing that sport for a year at Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho), she transferred to BYU and settled for playing on the club soccer team that was then the sports only presence at the school.I think my seventh-grade team could have beat this college team, Rockwood recalled thinking. So it was interesting. But I made most of my really good friends in college on the team.She shifted from player to coach upon graduation. There was speculation BYU might soon make soccer a varsity sport, and she tried to raise the level of play accordingly. Yet the team was fighting for practice space on campus and piling into vans and driving through the night to tournaments in California, dependent on families for a place to sleep. Her compensation was about $500.I had a girl on the team who taught an aerobics class at BYU who made quite a bit more money than me, Rockwood said.Again, this is not ancient history. This unfolded during the first half of the 1990s. At about the same time, North Carolina broke into double digits for NCAA titles in womens soccer. And it was more than a decade after Jim McMahon and Steve Young brought BYU national attention on the football field. But when the school finally added womens soccer as a varsity sport in time for the 1995 season, it made an important corresponding decision. Rather than hire someone with experience coaching Division I soccer, it hired Rockwood -- someone who understood the school.BYUs choice to eschew Sunday competition isnt the only way the team differs from other schools, but the decision is instructive in the ways it shapes a soccer program. The scheduling element alone means that BYU cant participate in most early-season tournaments, which typically involve four schools that play games Friday and Sunday. These events are useful for strengthening RPI resumes, a necessity for programs from smaller conferences with national aspirations. Instead, Rockwood needs an athletic department willing to commit the resources to make separate one-game trips to Penn State and Ohio State little more than two weeks apart, as BYU did this season.The choice also changes how the program recruits.A gifted attacking player who has scored 18 goals this season and whose knee injury a year ago may have been all that stood between BYU and another national seed, Hatch arrived in Provo without the sort of club and youth accolades that usually accompany players of her ability. That was at least in part because she didnt play in all the high-profile showcase settings growing up in Arizona.My faith is something that is really important to me, Hatch said. So when it came to playing at those higher levels, I knew I just had to work harder to get recognized for colleges -- or go to camps and work extra hard at camps because those were my only opportunities to be seen because lots of championship games were played on Sundays, and I wouldnt be attending.Michele Vasconcelos, a fifth-year senior and the WCC player of the year who enters the NCAA tournament with 14 goals and 12 assists, sometimes played on Sundays growing up in the Salt Lake City area. For her, while uncomfortable, the compromise ensured she could compete at a high enough level to continue playing in college. BYU was never in danger of losing the states high school player of the year to a larger program -- she still has a childhood journal with entries about how much she wanted to play for the Cougars -- but her faith shaped at least some of the schools appeal.It definitely played a huge role, Vasconcelos said. I loved the aspect of not being able to play on Sundays.When BYU first reached an NCAA quarterfinal in 2003, the catalyst was All-American and current assistant coach Aleisha Rose. The national high school player of the year, Rose played for the U.S. national team while in college. She stopped playing for the national team in part because of the necessity to compete on Sundays.While not as spectacular as the views of the mountains that abut Provo, the facilities at BYU are attractive. The practice field is a block away from the building that contains the team facilities and the glitzier Student Athlete Academic Center. South Field, where the team plays its games, is perfectly sized to make what rank as some of the largest crowds in the country sound that much louder. But there is little that would turn heads, certainly not amid the splendor of new facilities at schools like Oregon or across the SEC. What sells BYU is the very uniqueness that could limit it.I can go to big [youth] tournaments now and there are just not as many [Latter-day Saint] or Mormon kids playing because now they have to make those Sunday decisions at 10 years old or 11 years old because of the youth system being so competitive, Rockwood said. But the Utah kids, there are so many people who would prefer not to play on Sundays that the club system here schedules around Sundays. So kids are still developing at a high level without having to play on Sundays. Its changed our recruiting and our pool over these last five years.Weve always relied on a lot of Utah kids over the years, but probably more so now than even in the past.The transformation of a barren recruiting ground into something fertile enough to provide for the program is also an integral piece of the puzzle, with BYUs success likely both cause and effect in that process. The governing body for Utah high school athletics didnt sanction girls soccer until 1989, and then only after a lawsuit against certain school districts forced its hand. The prep and club structure in the state was well established by the time Vasconcelos came along, but she can recall her sister, more than a decade older, talking about a different era when opportunities were scarcer and competition weaker unless girls played on boys teams.At the college level, there are now six NCAA Division I programs in the state, with more than 100 in-state athletes on their rosters. There were no Division I programs in the state as recently as 1994. BYU is by far the most successful, with more NCAA tournament appearances than the other five combined.I feel like its every Utah girls dream to go to BYU [to play soccer], Vasconcelos said.That may be hyperbole, especially considering the University of Utah is also in the NCAA tournament and thriving after the schools move to the ultra-competitive Pac-12. Or that nearly half of the state, unlike 98 percent of the BYU student body, isnt Mormon.Yet the proof is in the results. And enough people share that dream to make it anything but fantasy to think BYU could win it all.This group wants to do something that BYU soccer has never done, Rockwood said. And thats potentially get to the final four and see what happens.Bruce Berenyi Jersey . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable. Mike Piazza Jersey . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. https://www.cheapmetsjerseys.us/1610l-william-a-shea-jersey-mets.html . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Amed Rosario Jersey . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. Mookie Wilson Jersey . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury.With more than 700 hate incidents reported since the recent presidential election, a significant part of America stands tense and fearful. It is at times like these that we expect our educational leaders at institutions of higher education to share wisdom and help calm the storm. But if you look at who is in the leadership positions there, they are overwhelmingly white and male.The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida continues to research and report on racial and gender equality in sports. Today, we are releasing our report -- Collegiate Athletic Leadership Still Dominated by White Men: Assessing Diversity Among Campus and Conference Leaders for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Schools in the 2016-17 Academic Year -- assessing the racial and gender makeup of key leadership positions.In the 2016-17 report, 88 percent of our presidents, 86 percent of our athletic directors, 89 percent of faculty athletics representatives and 100 percent of our conference commissioners were white. In those positions, 76, 79, 63 and 90 percent were white men, respectively. Overall, whites held 341 (88 percent) of the 388 campus leadership positions reported in this study, which was a slight decrease from 89 percent in 2015.As we release this annual report, I think of hearing from one of our graduates, an African-American woman who is so talented and smart that we wanted to hire her at the NCAS. She shared with me that someone at the post office yelled, Heil Hitler. I was alone with that man and the two postmen behind the counter. They laughed and proceeded to tell me that they couldnt mail my letter and every post office was out of stamps for me.As we release this annual report, I watch with horror the increasing number of hate incidents and overall unrest in our country. Throughout my life, I have seen incredible advances in the rights of women and people of color, but the recent climate has led me to wonder what the future holds for the next generation.Those who are parents are genuinely fearful for their childrens safety. How could they not be? Each year, as I conduct research for this report, I am hopeful the results will show increased representation for women and people of color in the leadership roles at the FBS schools. If there were more women and people of color in the decision-making positions at our colleges and universities, they would be helping to address the issues that are continuing to boil up on the surface.The NCAA met and deliberated about the shockingly poor record of hiring practices in college sport and decided to adopt the Pledge and Commitment to Promoting Diversity and Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics in September 2016. It is a strong call and has been signed by many presidents. The criticism is that the pledge is not binding and there are no sanctions for not improving the hiring record of a university athletics department. We can hope that the pledge and the strong backing of President Mark Emmert will lead to change.But I think we need what I have called The Eddie Robinson Rule, patterned after the NFLs Rooney Rule, with built-in sanctions to stop more years of overwhelmingly white men leading us in higher education. We need people of color and women in the candidate pool for all leadership positions on our campuses.As a child of the civil rights movement, I grew up in a family fighting for equal opportunity and the human rights due to every human being. However, at this moment, division and animosity appear to dominate our country.I have personally experienced the power sport has to unite people of all cultures and backgrounds. I believe colleges and universities must take advantage of the power they have to foster camaraderie and continue to fight for equality. Student-athletes have a major role to play in standing up for justice so the establishment cannot block its path.We release this report not to add to the contentious nature of these issues but to inform America of the continued pattern of under-representation of women and people of color in our society. The FBS D-1 Leadership reports main objective is to challenge all colleges and universities to mirror the diversity of their students and student-athletes in their campus leadership positions.dddddddddddd.Women and people of color who seek leadership positions in American higher education and college sports face enormous odds. This years report presents 19 women as presidents, and nine as athletic directors. Among people of color, there are 15 who are presidents and 16 who are football head coaches out of 128 FBS institutions. That number is about to go down as it is being reported that Charlie Strong, the coach at the university of Texas, is being fired. As we move toward college football playoffs, bowl games and the national championship, these poor numbers stand in stark contrast to our college football student-athletes, which are comprised of 58.7 percent people of color.In the DeVos Sport Business Management Program that I chair, and at the National Consortium for Academics and Sport, which I helped found more than 30 years ago, we always talk about using the power of sport to heal communities. The most recent example was after the nightmare of the Pulse Nightclub shootings, when the Tampa Bay Rays, Orlando City Soccer and, most recently, the Orlando Magic dedicated games to the victims and first responders. I am proud that it was our DeVos alumni who prepared the production of those events at all three sites. The City of Orlando and its sports teams took the despair and did something about it.I spent 50 years of my life working to bring people together. My wife, Ann, and I have done that together for the past 30 years. Bridging gaps. Talking about love conquering hate and love leading to forgiveness. Yet the morning after the 2016 presidential election, I did not know what to do. I felt helpless.But as the day went on, I heard from more than 15 former students and spoke to a dozen current students. Among them were women, African-Americans, Latinos and Muslims. Gays and lesbians. My family had been texting back and forth all day. The path became more clear. We need to do what we do best and work relentlessly with even more determination than in the past to fight against injustice and discrimination.Through the NCAS, we have been doing diversity and inclusion training for nearly three decades. For many of those years, we did a pretraining survey, and the biggest distinction between the opinions of white men, white women, black women and black men was that white men and women overwhelmingly felt that affirmative action discriminated against them. However, black men and women, by between 70 to 80 percent, felt that affirmative action did not discriminate against white men or women.The surveys we did after our training showed significantly different opinions in all four groups. White men and women felt less threatened by affirmative action, and black men and women were more sympathetic to the apprehension that white people had shown about the effects of affirmative action. Bridges were built. Bridges were and are possible now.We cannot sit on the sidelines. To use a sports analogy, we need to be in the game for social justice. I ask our student-athlete leaders, professional athletes and coaches to continue doing that if they already are, and perhaps add more emphasis. If you are not already involved, take this as an opportunity to pick an issue you are passionate about and help a local group advance that cause.We can do something about social justice in America. Our childrens future is at stake. We can all fight for that, no matter whom you voted for in the election. We need our leaders in higher education to help show the way, but that leadership needs to look more like America. We have a lot of work to do.Richard E. Lapchick is the chair of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program in the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida. Lapchick also directs UCFs Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, is the author of 16 books and the annual racial and gender report card, and is the president of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport. He has been a regular commentator for ESPN.com on issues of diversity in sport. Follow him on Twitter @richardlapchick and on Facebook at facebook.com/richard.lapchick. ' ' '
