Education

Oakland youth get introduced to lacrosse, a popular sport in the Bay Area

Published

11 years ago

July 13, 2015

Part 1

By Juan Martinez

In the past decade, the sport of lacrosse has grown exponentially in the greater Bay Area at both the high school and Division 1 college levels. In 2002, there were roughly 40 – 50 high school lacrosse teams. Today, there are well over 100.

Despite this, the sport remains rarefied. According to 2010 data from US Lacrosse, the sport’s national governing body, over 90 percent of lacrosse players, officials, coaches, and administrators are white.

Now, Kevin Kelley, who works as a goalie coach for the University of California, Berkeley men’s lacrosse team, wants to change that. In 2012, Kelley created the nonprofit Oakland Lacrosse Club (OLC), with the specific mission of bringing the sport to kids who would normally never get a chance to play it.

“Lacrosse is a suburban sport,” Kelley said. “It costs a lot of money to play. I just want to create a culture and environment for Oakland kids through a game that I love and grew up playing.”

Compared to baseball and football, lacrosse remains one of the most expensive high school sports – more than twice as expensive as baseball or basketball. The start-up cost for a team can be anywhere from $5,000 to $7,000. In addition to equipment, each team must pay an additional $1,000 to rent a field for both practice and tournament purposes.

“There are so many different layers to the diversity challenges in our sport,“ Eboni Preston-Laurent, the senior manager of diversity and inclusion at US Lacrosse, said. “For one thing, it’s expensive, especially for boys, because of the full set of gear they require – the stick itself can run you about $100 these days. I think lacrosse in general is a growing sport, but there are still kids on the West Coast and in the Midwest who have no idea what the sport is.”

Through OLC, Kelley offers free clinics to interested students for eight weeks in the fall and spring every year. He and his team of assistant coaches and volunteers, which include UC Berkeley men and women lacrosse players, meet with a group of kids for two hours. The clinics are intended to give boys and girls the opportunity to learn the fundamentals, and also learn how to play at a high level.

Lacrosse is unique in that it has the spacing of soccer, gamesmanship of basketball, and the physicality of hockey.

“Most of the teams we play have more experience,” Kelley said. “We want our teams to battle with and beat top teams from the state.”

A big component of the OLC is teaching the lessons inherent to team sports, like how to be a good teammate, the importance of positive communication, and developing the habits of persistence.

To launch the program, Kelley partnered with six Oakland middle schools (Claremont, Brewer, Oakland Military Institute, Westlake, Urban Promise Academy, and Life Academy), with the goal of recruiting students from a diverse array of backgrounds. Last year, 40 percent of Kelley’s players were African-American, and 29 percent were Latino. Just 5 percent were white.

“People told me Oakland was a basketball town,” Kelley said. “They told me that I could never get kids to play lacrosse because it wasn’t culturally relevant to them. That pissed me off. It made me want to prove them wrong!”

In practice, Kelley focuses on resiliency and preaches that to his players. He wants them to be seen as athletes and not as victims. Such support can make a difference in a city like Oakland, where only 67 percent of kids graduate high school.

Children growing up in East and West Oakland have a life expectancy 12 years less than children living in Piedmont, and are five times more likely to develop type II diabetes than children living in Piedmont.

Assistant Principal Dennis Guikema of Urban Promise Academy appreciates that the OLC promotes a happy, healthy and positive lifestyle for kids by giving them another option to perform physical activities.

“It was very interesting to see kids, who I had not seen involved in sports before, get really engaged in lacrosse,” Guikema said.

Overall, the OLC’s retention rate is around 90 percent. One-third of the kids are returning players, but almost all of the rest have only recently learned the sport.

“Every sport in America was once like lacrosse before it got diversified and integration took place,” said Lanon Gillins, OLC Director of Individual and Team Development. “Kids ask me all the time, ‘Isn’t it a white sport?’ And I say, ‘Yeah but so what?’”

This article is Part 1 of a 3-part series.

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Related Topics:Bay Area lacrosse Oakland Oakland Lacrosse Club (OLC)youth sports

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How Is AI Affecting California? The State Wants You to Share Your Story

The program marks the first time the state has opened the platform to all Californians. State officials said the effort is designed to give residents a direct role in discussions about how AI should be regulated and used as the technology rapidly expands across industries.

Published

1 week ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced May 7 that California is expanding its Engaged California digital democracy initiative statewide, inviting residents to help shape future state policies on artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on jobs and the economy.

“We’ve got to be clear-eyed about this moment: AI is moving fast, bringing enormous opportunity, but also real risks,” Newsom said in a statement. “Californians deserve a seat at the table as we shape what’s to come.”

The initiative will roll out in two phases. Beginning immediately, Californians can sign up online to share how AI is affecting their work and communities and provide ideas for possible government action. Later this summer, a smaller group reflecting the state’s workforce demographics will participate in live discussions focused on developing policy recommendations.

State officials said the goal is to identify areas of agreement among Californians and provide policymakers with public feedback as the state develops future AI regulations and workforce strategies.

Engaged California is modeled after digital democracy programs used in Taiwan and is intended to encourage structured public discussion rather than social media-style debate. Officials described the effort as a form of “deliberative democracy” aimed at helping residents engage directly in state decision-making.

“The more Californians are engaged in the democratic process, the better able we’ll be to confront the challenges we face together,” said Nick Maduros, California Secretary of Government Operations, in a statement.

The statewide launch builds on two earlier pilot programs. One pilot gathered public input following the Los Angeles firestorms to help guide recovery efforts, while another collected ideas from state employees about improving government operations.

California has positioned itself as a national leader in AI policy and development. Since 2023, the Newsom administration has introduced initiatives focused on responsible AI use in government, cybersecurity protections, workforce training and regulations targeting risks such as deepfakes and AI-generated robocalls.

The state has also partnered with companies in Silicon Valley — including NVIDIA, Google, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft — to expand AI education and workforce training programs across California schools and universities.

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Advice

Book Review: Books for College-Bound Students

The kind of workday your Grandpa had is probably over, and you can’t count on toiling at the same place for 40 years for a pension and a gold watch. You already know that, and these books will help you decide your next step. You’ll learn what kind of worker you are, what’s stopping you from finding a job or occupation you’ll love, how to determine the purpose you envision for your future, and how to get where you need to be.

Published

1 week ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

Book covers. Photo courtesy of Terri Schlichenmeyer.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Authors: Various, Copyright: c.2026, Publishers: Various, SRP: $21.00 – $29.00, Page Counts: Various

The videos and news reports were inspiring.

In them, a hesitant prospective college student became a happy, new college-bound student with the click of a key. They were accepted into the college of their dreams – so how can you get the same feeling next spring, when you’re the one with the highest of hopes?

You can start by reading these great books and sharing them with your family…

You probably already know that getting into the college of your choice is not something you do last-minute. In “The People’s Guide to College Applications: A Week-by-Week Approach to Writing, Connecting, and Getting in” (Prometheus Books, $ 21.95), Jill Constantino takes you through each step, but not in a frantic way. There’s no pressure here, just easy-to-grasp, makes-sense methods to apply for the college you want. There are reminders here, things you can’t forget and things you can, hints on asking for referrals and writing essays, and plenty of reminders to take a deep breath. Bonus: it’s also a book for parents, who may feel just as much pressure as their child does.

Okay, but let’s say that you’re an adult, a parent who’s sweating those college applications, classes, and the FAFSA for yourself, ugh! Then you’ll want to read “Student Parent: The Fight for Families, the Cost of Poverty, and the Power of College” by Nicole Lynn Lewis (Beacon Press, $26.97). an urgent call meant for nontraditional students who are also Black, Latinx, gay, Moms, or Dads.

Inside this book, you’ll find stats and stories that may already sound familiar, tales of not enough money, not enough support, not enough arms or sleep or resources. If you’re looking for a book of advice, this isn’t it, though. It’s more of a resource that you’ll want to take to your guidance counselor or any local politician.

Alright, but what if you’ve decided that college can wait? Is that okay? Look for “The Mission Generation: Reclaim Your Purpose, Rewrite Success, Rebuild Our Future” by Arun Gupta and Thomas J. Fewer (Wiley, $29.00) because – guess what? – you have many options for your future.

The kind of workday your Grandpa had is probably over, and you can’t count on toiling at the same place for 40 years for a pension and a gold watch. You already know that, and this book will help you decide your next step. You’ll learn what kind of worker you are, what’s stopping you from finding a job or occupation you’ll love, how to determine the purpose you envision for your future, and how to get where you need to be. This book isn’t just for high schoolers, but for anyone ages 16 and beyond who’s feeling restless, ready for change, or who’s thinking about some kind of purposeful retirement.

And if these aren’t the college-based or not-college-bound books you need, then be sure to ask your favorite bookseller or librarian for help on ideas, how-to’s, test prep books, or study guides. They’ll have books for you, and maybe a little inspiration, too.

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Arts and Culture

Against All Odds: Mary Jackson’s Journey to NASA Engineer

Jackson’s life took a significant turn when she was offered the opportunity to work in a wind tunnel, a facility used to test the effects of air moving over aircraft structures. It was here that her passion for engineering truly took flight. However, there was a challenge: to become an engineer, she needed to take advanced courses that were only offered at a segregated high school.

Published

1 week ago

May 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Mary Jackson. Public domain.

By Tamara Shiloh

When we talk about breaking barriers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the name Mary Jackson deserves a place at the top of the list.

Jackson was born in 1921 in Hampton, Virginia, a place that would later become central to her groundbreaking work. From an early age, she showed a strong aptitude for math and science—subjects that, at the time, were not widely encouraged for African American women. But Jackson was not one to be limited by expectations. She earned degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), setting the foundation for a career that would change history.

Before joining NASA, Jackson worked as a teacher and later as a research mathematician at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the agency that eventually became NASA. Like many African American women of her time, she began her career as a “human computer,” performing complex calculations by hand. It was in this environment that she worked alongside brilliant minds like Katherine Johnson, forming part of a powerful group of African American women whose calculations helped launch America into space.

Jackson did something truly remarkable. She petitioned the city of Hampton for permission to attend those classes. She didn’t accept “no” as an answer. And she won.

In 1958, Jackson became NASA’s first African American female engineer.

But Jackson’s impact didn’t stop there.

Later in her career, she chose to step away from her engineering position—not because she couldn’t continue, but because she wanted to make a difference. She moved into roles focused on equal opportunity, working to ensure that women and minorities had access to the same opportunities she fought so hard to get.

Jackson’s story gained wider recognition through the book and film Hidden Figures, which highlighted the contributions of African American women at NASA. But long before the spotlight found her, Jackson was doing the work—quietly, persistently, and brilliantly.

Jackson retired from Langley in 1985. Among her many honors were an Apollo Group Achievement Award and being named Langley’s Volunteer of the Year in 1976. She served as the chair of one of the center’s annual United Way campaigns and a member of the National Technical Association (the oldest African American technical organization in the United States).

She and her husband Levi had an open-door policy for young Langley recruits trying to gain their footing in a new town and a new career. A 1976 Langley Researcher profile might have done the best job capturing Mary’s spirit and character, calling her a “gentlelady, wife and mother, humanitarian and scientist.”

For Jackson, science and service went hand in hand.

She died on Feb. 11, 2005, at age 83, at a convalescent home in Hampton, Virginia.