If diversity is defined as multiform entity or a structure of various elements, then the composition of youth sports has some catching up to do. A lack of diversity is threatening the well-being of youth sports and its multitude of participating children.

Young minorities are participating in basketball and football at healthy rates but not so much in other sports, even baseball and track.

The lack of diversity at the youth level manifests itself at the intercollegiate level as well. About 42 percent of men’s basketball student-athletes in Divisions I, II and III programs are black, as are about 32 percent in football. It’s about 20 percent in each gender of track and field, but then a significant drop occurs. Men’s and women’s volleyball are at about 6 and 8 percent, respectively, and soccer and tennis hover in the 4 to 5 percent range for both genders. Baseball is at 4.5 percent. Ice hockey, golf, lacrosse and swimming are below 3 percent.

Experts say those trends can be attributed to the routines that youths and their parents, intentionally or not, continue to follow.

Tim Clark, director of youth sports initiatives at the National Youth Sports Corporation (NYSC), says young people need to take advantage of new options to set their own course.

"They do not have to limit themselves to a couple of different paths — really worn down paths — that other kids and their friends and family members have traveled," Clark said.

For some, it’s not easy to deviate from the paths. Most kids would rather stay with the sports they know. And many tend to play the sports they see others who look like them play.

But several organizations are making a difference in diversifying some of the nontraditional sports. In 2000, for example, Johanna Thomashefski and two friends founded Lacrosse for Life. The outreach organization’s target is to bring lacrosse to the under-served minority communities in the San Francisco area. Traditionally, lacrosse has been considered a sport limited to wealthy, primarily white, youths in the Northeast.

"The first year or two, we were getting kids who were choosing to do something different who didn’t particularly get much peer affirmation," Thomashefski said.

She and her colleagues, Andrew McDonald and the late Josh Miller, understood the product they were endorsing was a foreign commodity to families in San Francisco. They knew lacrosse would be a hard sell simply because the outreach effort was aimed at a segment of the population with limited, if any, access or exposure to it. Six years later, hundreds of Bay Area kids have been exposed to and participate in the previously unknown sport.

"There is a desire and appreciation in communities, lacrosse or not, to support efforts to bring a positive and safe niche to the area," Thomashefski said.

Dwayne Adams Sr., founder of the rowing-based organization Breaking Barriers, said his goal is to encourage young people to be more creative and not be afraid to try something new.

Adams started Breaking Barriers in 2005 after the death of three Camden, New Jersey, youths. The organization serves communities in Camden and Philadelphia. The group’s mission is to reduce the number of youth on the streets and to channel their energy and enthusiasm in a positive, productive direction. Adams wanted to create an avenue of outreach to the community, especially for the children.

Seven years before starting Breaking Barriers, Adams was in a similar situation searching for an outlet to recharge his life that had been drastically changed by a stray bullet that left him without one eye and legally blind in the other. His new condition threatened the athletic lifestyle he was used to. During his rehabilitation, Adams was introduced to rowing, which he knew little about.

"I was thinking, ‘Is that the rowing you see on TV where the guy is rowing the little rowboat and the lady is sitting there with an umbrella?’ That was the first thing I thought," Adams said.

It did not take long for him to dismiss that idea. On the contrary, he grew to love the sport. He thinks other young people can have the same experience. He said he presented the sport to about 30 school children, and after an energy-filled demonstration, he knew he had gained the kids’ interest.

"There are times when you can tell somebody something and then look back at them and it is like, ‘You know what, I’m wasting my breath,’ but with these kids, they felt it," Adams said.

He believes kids are naturally curious. Those with the ability to create positive interactions and experiences for children and sports should offer help to communities initiate connections to encourage diverse participation.

Thomashefski certainly was in position to effect change when she brought Lacrosse for Life to San Francisco. "Some people are going to have a desire for the different and diverse and they are going to seek it out," Thomashefski said, "but some are not going to know they have that desire until someone introduces it to them."

The introduction phase is crucial in the process of drawing a diverse mix of youth to a sport they do not know. It has to be done in a manner to generate future interest beyond the initial contact.

Jon Cruzat, diversity specialist for USA Swimming, knows the strategies to bring attention to traditionally non-diverse sports.

"We have to be able to meet kids where they are and create an environment in which they want to explore the sport," he said.

Cruzat uses opportunities at select camps to pair youths and diverse athletes together, a device he said has shown results. He said youth are motivated by examples, so what better way to create enthusiasm than by involving athletes to whom they can relate. Being able to see the possibilities of the future goes a long way in strengthening the resolve of kids to continue with an activity.

That was a successful approach for Thomashefski, too. She was not the same ethnicity of the people she was trying to help, but relating to others goes beyond the surface of what the eye can see.

"It all boils down to relationships, humanity and people dealing with people," she said.

No matter the approach — speaking at schools, reaching out to neighborhoods or teaching classes — kids have to be afforded the opportunity to experience and participate in different sports.

Clark of the NYSC knows from personal experience the power of being presented with an opportunity to play an unfamiliar sport. Clark loves lacrosse. That might not seem out of the ordinary, but as an African-American male, Clark has few role models in the sport.

A football coach who doubled as the lacrosse coach introduced the sport to Clark by putting a stick in his hands and giving him the chance to play. From that starting point, Clark went on to play on four Division III national championship lacrosse teams at Hobart College.

"If kids are not presented the opportunity to play, then, no, they are not going to play," Clark said. "The opportunities are out there, but it is going to take individuals who take the time and have the motivation and interest to go in to a minority community and introduce alternative sports to them."

Clark remembers having a that-is-not-for-me mentality when was first introduced to lacrosse. He quickly overcame that mindset after giving the sport a chance and ended up choosing lacrosse over his first love, football.

Barriers’ Adams echoes the message from Clark’s story.

"There are other things out there. Even if you are not a rower, there are other things out there. Just take a look at all the options," Adams said.

Because no two children are the same, Clark recommends parents gauge a child’s individual needs and interests. When the time comes, children will say if they are genuinely interested or not.

"Whether their interest level clicks on or off, that is up to them, but at least open the