The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Defending his net
Hammerheads’ Alleyne looks to make an impact on, off field
Former Big East goalie of the year, current Division I assistant coach, professional lacrosse player, Kris Alleyne of the Connecticut Hammerheads is proud to be recognized for any of those roles.
Last month, he took on a larger issue that is bigger than any game he or the Hammerheads will play during the MLL’s abbreviated season. As one of the few Black players in MLL, Alleyne took to social media to express his thoughts on the need for social reform.
“These last few days have been heartbreaking, and make it impossible to stay silent, or not stand up for what WE believe in,” Alleyne wrote in a Twitter post on June 2. “We must continue to educate ourselves in order to improve as individuals and a society. I do love this country, but we all must be better.”
It wouldn’t be completely accurate to say he wrote those words on June 2 but that was the day that he hit the send button and became part of the group of professional athletes using their platform to push for change.
“That took me about two weeks to write,” Alleyne said. “It’s not like it’s a book that I wrote but using my platform for good is something that is really important for me and I just wanted to make sure that my message came across as straight as it could have . ...
“I’m lucky that I’ve only had a couple instances of blatant racism toward me so I really wanted to make sure it was coming from a place of being completely genuine and coming from the heart. I think I did that. The crazy part of all of this is I didn’t really expect it to take off to the level that it did. It just kind of showed the power of social media that everybody’s voice matters and being able to speak up to something that I truly believe in and needed to change, and I think that’s pretty evident. It was awesome to get a chance to speak on it and continue that conversation because it’s pretty obvious that our sport is not very diverse yet, but there are opportunities for young Black players, young minority players to get into our game and we have to keep that window open so we can keep diversifying the game.”
As of early Friday afternoon, Alleyne’s post was retweeted 113 times and had 650 likes.
That is just the start of Alleyne using his platform for good whether as a pro lacrosse player, Division I assistant coach or member of the community. If he was planning a major statement before the Hammerheads’ game against Denver at 7 p.m. on Saturday, he wasn’t saying.
“There are three other Black players in our league, we’ve had conversations over the last couple of days of what we want to do,” Alleyne said. “To be honest, I don’t really know yet. It’s something that hopefully will be addressed but I don’t know what our plan is as of right now. Chad [Toliver] on Philly, he’s got cleats done up with a message on them, I have some writing on my chest protector so I don’t if there’s going to be a grand display but it’s definitely something, it’s not going to be just brushed off. I think that’s more or less kind of the diplomatic answer; I can’t speak on it, I’m not sure yet.”
The Connecticut-Denver game will be the final one during the opening day tripleheader on Saturday. Toliver’s Philadelphia Barrage team is up first, going up against host Chesapeake at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
Alleyne said he has only been subjected to a couple of cases of blatant racism. He still remembers one experience in the early stages of his lacrosse career that will always stick with him.
“I had a winter league game when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school,” Alleyne said. “After the game, a kid I made a save on towards the end of the game that kind of sealed it, this was a winter league game, the scoreboard doesn’t matter and during the handshake line, he didn’t even say it to my face but it was as he was passing by, he said ‘Good game but you’re still a n ***** .’ I didn’t really process what he said until he was really behind me. When I turned to react one of my buddies [got into his face], not that I’m proud of it but a little skirmish had broken out. I think the toughest thing looking back on it was that my brother who is my best friend, he has been a coach/mentor and obviously my big brother, he kind of scolded me because he thought it was me being a hothead and saying something to the kid that started it, only for him to realize that I didn’t say anything.
“What was frustrating about that and that being kind of the first instance of racism I saw on the field was their coach came in and said, the kid made a mistake and that is not his character . ... That was kind of the BS of it all, when he said something incredibly hateful over a winter league lacrosse game. If they’re going to say that’s not his character, I question that because he used a word of hate just to get under my skin. I think there’s no place for that and that’s obvious but unfortunately, that does happen.”
Alleyne had multiple Black teammates during his time at Rutgers who helped him deal with life as one of the rare minority players at the highest level of the lacrosse world.
“I was lucky at Rutgers to have four Black teammates on the team, all but one are playing professionally so we’ve had conversations about what we’re planning on doing, using our platform for good,” Alleyne said. “I think it’s just having these conversations, if I can influence five people than I’m doing my job . ...
“There are so many kids who follow what we do that if you can get them started early and understanding that it’s not all butterflies and rainbows in our world, if they understand that at a young age, they’re more apt to be a good person and not letting things slide in their personal life.”
Alleyne and the Connecticut Hammerheads — made up of several members of the 2019 Dallas Rattlers but including newcomers led by New Canaan’s Michael Kraus, the No. 2 overall pick in the MLL draft — had their first practice Thursday.
“It was cool because you got to shake off the rust a little bit,” Alleyne said. “I know everybody’s been training but it is not the same until you have to figure out your role and what you’re doing within the system. It was good to get to know the guys, put names to faces because we’ve all been in the same group chats for a couple of months now, but it was awesome.”
The players from all six teams are staying in the same hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. Many of them have used their downtime to get work done at their jobs. Alleyne has been watching live streams of some lacrosse events as part of his role with the Canisius coaching staff. He’s been in contact with current players, parents of potential recruits. It is certainly a better experience than what he and so many in college athletics were faced with when COVID-19 brought the spring sports seasons screeching to a halt.
“I think it was pretty hard for them to realize that they didn’t get a chance to play for the seniors or continuing on whatever path we were looking to go on to,” Alleyne said. “It was definitely tough but we tried to give them all the resources we could to finish out the year strong because the semester ended in March so moving everything online so we kind of flipped our hats as coaches, we became more of the academic advisor/mentor type.”
With Sean Sconone likely to receive the bulk of the time in net, Alleyne could find himself playing the role of mentor to a young Hammerheads squad.
“I’m only 26 and I’m the second oldest player, but just getting the chance to see the rookies play during practice [Thursday], I think we have a real talented bunch,” Alleyne said.