Rain poured down under the blinding stadium lights as junior Lara Saslow jogged onto the field for the last-minute kickoff. It was the semifinal round of the football playoffs, and the team was down 35-42 when the head coach called her in. Despite this being her first kickoff in a game, he trusted her with this high-stakes play — in a sport where she’s the only girl on the roster.

The kick wasn’t perfect, but it landed where it needed to. For Saslow, it was a moment of pride — one which reminded her she had earned her place on the team.

But Saslow said that moment of pride doesn’t erase the constant pressure that comes with being the only girl on the team.

“I just wish there was less pressure, and it could be more of a normal thing,” Saslow said. “I just wish I didn’t have to feel like I had to prove myself, and I could just play a sport that I enjoyed without feeling like everyone’s looking at me or waiting for me to mess up and worrying about making sure I don’t mess up because that’ll make me look bad and even just create a bad reputation for girls in general who play male-dominated sports.”

In recent years, there’s been a significant surge in the participation of girls and athletes from diverse racial backgrounds in sports, breaking down gender and racial barriers. According to the Aspen Institute State of Play 2023, the participation rate of girls in sports is the highest since 2013, and participation among Asian youth increased to 42% in 2022, up from 35% in 2019, which marks the highest rate for Asian youth participation in sports since at least 2012. These trends reflect the growing inclusivity in sports, aligning with the trends at Paly.

Junior Tarika Pillay, who is from South Africa and on the field hockey team, said people tend to form first impressions in a specific order — and her race is often one of the first things they notice.

“For me, they notice a girl, and then they’ll notice the color of my skin, and then they’ll notice the accent I have if I haven’t talked to them before because I have a vaguely British accent,” Pillay said. “People get kind of confused. Sometimes they ask me questions about my religion and culture and not in an offensive way, in a genuinely curious way. And I think it just changes the way that people perceive me.”

Saslow said perceptions like these initially caused concerns before her first football practice.

“I was definitely terrified to go to that first practice,” Saslow said. “Just scared of being weaker, slower and just not fitting in socially, but I don’t think that really ever stopped me. It just made it harder along the way, but I don’t think I ever really thought of that as a reason to stop.”

Being the only girl on the team, Saslow said she had to overcome that fear of not fitting in with her teammates.

“I felt like I had to prove myself to the team and the coaches and even myself, and I definitely stressed about that a lot,” Saslow said. “I was like, ‘If I mess up, I’m literally showing all the guys on the team why girls shouldn’t play because they’re bad.’ That’s what I would think when I would mess up. And I just had to make sure that I was not proving that to them.”

Saslow said this was difficult.

“The most annoying and frustrating thing about playing is the fact that I feel like I have to make up for being a bit smaller and lighter than other teammates,” Saslow said. “And I feel it’s hard to keep up sometimes just because of how our bodies are built differently. That’s definitely been a challenge — just feeling like I have to keep up physically.”

As one of the few Indian-Americans on the basketball team, sophomore Tanmay Adya said sometimes people are surprised to learn he plays basketball.

“Sometimes there are some comments that are like, ‘Oh, shouldn’t you be studying or something,’ but they don’t really stick with me because they’re just my friends and joking around,” Adya said.

Saslow has had similar experiences.

“Most of the time they don’t even realize I’m a girl until we’re saying, ‘Good game’ at the end,” Saslow said. “But there’s been some comments, like someone yelled, ‘Oh, it’s Bella and the Bulldogs’ once … It’s a fairly unusual thing. It doesn’t really bother me — it’s just a normal reaction.”

One way Adya has dealt with prejudice is to look up to other players.

“I don’t really care that much about it, but I look up to different people when playing sports of different cultures because there are not as many of my own culture who play basketball or sports,” Adya said.

Similarly, Pillay said there are not many field hockey players from South Africa. However, she said this doesn’t bother her because appearances aren’t important in sports.

“I’m aware of it, but it doesn’t affect me in any way, because I know that it doesn’t matter,” Pillay said. “Sports are far more important about what you give in rather than what you look like. As athletes, if you are discriminating against someone because of what they look like, who they are, what gender they are, then it’s stupid because the only thing that ever matters, whether that’s in a team sport or whether that’s in an individual sport, is that you give it your all, you try your best and that you actually want to be there. And that is the only thing that matters as athletes.”