This article, as told to Matt DaSilva, appears in the April edition of US Lacrosse Magazine, which includes a special 12-page section featuring faces and voices of the black lacrosse community. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

I’m an African-American from the Chicagoland area. I started playing lacrosse in the fifth grade. I was sleeping over a friend’s house, and he had a practice the next morning. He was like, “Want to come?” I was like, “I don’t really know what lacrosse is.” He was like, “That’s fine. I’ll give you some gear. You can come with me and practice a little bit.” I enjoyed it. Put on the gear, enjoyed playing it and it went from there.

In fifth grade, we were just running around having fun. There were no differences we saw then. We were 9 and 10 years old. Things definitely changed between then and now.

I was down at a tournament with my high school team, and I saw a DM on Instagram and Twitter [about Nation United]. When I joined that team, I just felt instantly part of something bigger. Everybody on the same team was striving for the same purpose. I felt instantly connected with those guys. Our bond on and off the field instantly clicked.

In the Chicagoland area, all the high schools I’ve played at, I’ve noticed three other black kids, including Dami [Oladunmoye] who plays at Grayslake. There’s Najee [Taylor], who’s at Loyola. And Rondel Jamison, who went to Carmel Catholic. Those are the only kids I can pull off the top of my head. My high school team [at St. Viator], I’m the only black kid on the team. There’s always that feeling in the back of my head where I’m just kind of separated. There’s a boundary between me and everyone else on the team, culture and friendship-wise.

It’s been around every sport. It’s not just lacrosse. Being a black kid with the last name Black, somebody is going to make a joke. And I feel like they’re lighthearted jokes, but there’s always a thought in my head: Are they really jokes?

[Catholics vs. convicts?] I can see him trying to put it as a joke with what happened back with Miami and Notre Dame. But it hurts, because there’s the stereotype of black people always being convicts. That’ll always hurt on the inside with us. I just thought it was pretty selfish of him to say something like that.

I was on the [Nation United] summer team. [The IL Recruiting Invitational] was my favorite tournament I’ve ever played. We all went there for the same reason — not just to win. We came there to make a name for ourselves, to put out there that us black kids can play together at a high level. When we won, we sent that out to everyone. Our 2018s won too. That was the coolest part. We had both teams take on the whole tournament.

There was one game. Someone on the [opposing] team said, “You guys don’t belong on these fields.” That kind of made me get thinking. I don’t get these comments. I don’t know why these are coming from kids that are my age. I just didn’t understand it. It made us play that much harder. It just magnified the point that we’re playing for.

When I was growing up playing lacrosse, I would look up Kyle Harrison highlights trying to imitate how he plays. If I could be the next Kyle Harrison, that’s what I strive to be. If I could be playing on that level, if that’s what God has in plan for me, I definitely think I could carry on what he wanted [for the sport] and pass that on to the next generation.