Rosters often feature a player’s name, number, grade, position, hometown, high school, major, height, and weight in the case of men’s sports.
However, some colleges, including Brandeis University and Springfield College, have added something else to their rosters: pronouns.
Brandeis is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts that serves more than 3,600 students. It’s about 11 miles west of Boston.
Brandeis is an NCAA Division 3 school. On the men’s side, the Brandeis Judges compete in: baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field. On the women’s side, the school competes in: basketball, cross country, fencing, softball, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.
NewBostonPost reviewed each roster over the weekend and saw that there is a section where players include their pronouns.
Here are the categories listed on Brandeis rosters on the team’s web site:
Every player with pronouns listed had either “she/her/hers” or “he/him/his” listed as their preferred pronouns. These pronouns are typically used by people who identify as female and male, respectively.
Brandeis has two openly transgender athletes this school year. One is Jac Guerra, a member of the men’s cross country and track and field teams. The other is Alexander Wicken, a member of the women’s fencing team. Both are biological females who identify as transgender men. They both have he/him/his listed as their pronouns.
The 2021-2022 school year is the first school year during which Brandeis has listed players’ pronouns on sports rosters.
A spokesman for the school explained why the school is including pronouns in an email message to NewBostonPost.
“Brandeis student-athletes were offered the opportunity to include their pronouns on rosters because we prefer to use correct pronouns when we prefer to students,” the spokesman wrote. “This is especially important when we or opposing schools write competition recaps, and when broadcasters refer to student-athletes in the course of streaming. It is an emerging trend for professional and university athletic departments, and listing pronouns for our staff and student-athletes is completely voluntary.”
The link in the quote to a news story about a professional women’s soccer team was included in the emailed comment.
Brandeis isn’t the only college in Massachusetts to have sports teams featuring pronouns on rosters.
The same is true of most sports teams at Springfield College.
Springfield College is a private college in the western Massachusetts city of Springfield that serves more than 2,100 students. Like Brandeis, it is an NCAA Division 3 school.
Pronouns also appear to be new to Springfield College rosters this school year; last year’s rosters didn’t include a slot for player pronouns.
While most of the sports rosters at Springfield College include players’ preferred pronouns on the roster, a few don’t. Team rosters not stating personal pronouns for players include those for baseball, football, men’s golf, men’s lacrosse, and wrestling.
Here is the layout of the football roster, which doesn’t include pronouns:
Teams with rosters that feature pronouns include: men’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s gymnastics, men’s soccer, men’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, men’s track and field, men’s volleyball, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, field hockey, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, softball, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis, women’s track and field, and women’s volleyball.
Here is the layout of the women’s gymnastics roster, which includes pronouns:
A spokesman for Springfield College could not be reached for comment on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday this week.
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