1. We Are One Team
Initiatives & Projects
Photo Campaign
We Are One Team’s year-
long photo campaign that
features BGSU athletes,
students and activists share
messages that highlight
social justice issues.
Panel Discussions
Panel discussions create
an open discussion focus-
ing on how sport how can
reduce stereotypes and
help create social change
on campus
Speaker Events
WA1T invites speakers that
bring an expert opinion to a
social justice issue to spark
discussion and promote an
environment of inclusion.
Sporting Days
Sporting Days brings inter-
national students with
BGSU athletes for activi-
ties, the idea to bring the
two most isolated groups
on campus together to con-
nect through the power of
sports
We Are One Team BG
We Are One Team BG
@WeAreOneTeamBG
“This newsletter aims to inform the BGSU community on projects related to the We Are One
Team (WA1T) initiative. As an initiative using sport to facilitate social change, WA1T recognizes
the need of constant exchange and collaboration between different entities across the universi-
ty. This newsletter thus serves as a resource to students, faculty, and staff, who want to be in-
formed on topics and events on and beyond campus that promote diversity, tolerance, and in-
clusion. If you have something you would like to be highlighted in this newsletter, please email
us at WeAreOneTeam.BG@gmail.com.”
NEWSLETTER December 2015
An Initiative to Promote Social Justice Through Sport at BGSU.
WHO IS WE ARE ONE TEAM?
We Are One Team (WA1T) an initiative to promote social justice through sport
at BGSU, Bowling Green State University. With the idea that sport plays a
large role in many people’s lives and in American culture, sport can be a pow-
erful weapon in the fight for social justice.
We Are One Team uses sport as a forum to create a dialogue, promote friend-
ship between stereotyped groups and environment of tolerance and inclusion
on campus.
Through the power of sport, WA1T aims to strengthen the sense of communi-
ty at BGSU by creating awareness of social injustice and by facilitating an en-
vironment that values inclusion, diversity, and tolerance.
We Are One Team represent a strong group of advocates for positive social
change who are united by their mutual love and passion for sports. We Are
One Team are open to BGSU general student body, athletics, minority groups,
faculty and administration.
We Are One Team s an umbrella initiative for multiple projects that promote
social justice through sport. If you are a Falcon at BGSU and want to make a
positive change in your community we want you to be apart of our team be-
cause in the end We Are One Team.

2. We Are One Team’s Speaker Events are meant to
bring together students and faculty members to
discuss topics on social justice issues to create an
open safe environment promoting education,
inclusion, tolerance, and respect.
“I didn’t know who I was in terms of sports
because I wasn’t on either team and I was just
kind of there,” Brent Darah said during the WA1T
speaker event.
We Are One Team kicked off their first speaker
event on International Day of Tolerance,
November 16. WA1T welcomed a transitioning
Bowling Green State University athlete Brent
Darah. Darah spoke of his transition story, and
what it means to be a transgender athlete at
BGSU.
Darah is a 20 year-old student athlete at BGSU
currently a junior majoring in Sports Management working towards a minor in Marketing.
“Growing up, there were many differences between myself and the other females.” Darah said, “After puberty, I realized something
wasn’t right.”
Sports have always played a role in Darah’s life; he was a four-year letter winner in high school for the cross-country and track and field
team, ran for the BGSU women’s cross-country/track and field teams, and is now a future member of the BGSU men’s cross-country team.
Darah was joined by old roommate and teammate Rachel Durbin at the event. “He sat me down and said, ‘I’m going be Brent. Refer to me
as he/him/his. I’m starting my trans journey,’” Durbin said. “He’s such a great friend that none of it ever phased me.”
With the acceptance of his friends, teammates and loved ones he was ready to switch teams. Prior to Brent there was no precedent or
guidelines to transition athletes, but Brent managed to break down the walls.
Durah started taking testosterone on January 27, 2015, and will need to take testosterone for the rest of his life. Due to testosterone being
a banned substance by the NCAA, Durah needed permission to take it and switch teams. This fall, he was officially eligible to be part of the
men’s team.
Switching teams has been hard on his body and mind especially since this semester due to transition he wasn’t on either team. He still felt
displaced, training with the women’s team but waiting approval from the NCAA and the university.
“I ask a lot out of my body to be a collegiate athlete and transition at the same time,” he said, ““I didn’t know who I was in terms of sports
because I wasn’t on either team and I was just kind of there… It’s really tough… not being able to contribute to my team’s success. “
With his new perspective Darah says male privilege s something that stands out to him, being born as a woman gives him a new level of
understanding of the perceptions that most men do not have.
“The world caters to men,” he said. “To have people have different perceptions for me and things I should know was very interesting.”
Darah has broken down stereotypes and barriers by being the first openly transgender athlete at BGSU, and the first openly transgender
cross-country athlete in the NCAA but also by using his new perspective to acknowledge gender inequality.
"Brent's story is important and needs to be shared. In sport, as in society in general, LGBT individuals are still discriminated against.
Embracing Brent's story was a perfect way to create awareness of transgender athletes" Yannick Kluch, founder of WA1T Said.
The Speaker event was a huge success for We Are One Team, there was over 160 students who came out to hear Darah’s amazing story, it
really shows how accepting and ready the BGSU community is use sports as a way to promote social justice issues.
WA1T Host Transitioning Athlete Speaking on
LGBT Identity in Sports

3. We Are One Team kicked off their first event on September 21, its inaugural event as part of the International Day for Peace. The
event was a panel discussion on the potential that sports can hold to reduce stereotype and promote social change.
Panelists included: Yannick Kluch,
Founding President of WA1T; Chet
Hesson, Assistant Athletic Director for
Academics & Student Services; Nancy
Spencer, Associate Professor, Sport
Management; Jasmine Matthews, former
Student Athlete, Women’s Basketball;
Brittany Lastrapes, Assistant Coach, BGSU
Softball; and Krishna Han, Assistant
Director, Office of Multicultural Affairs.
The diverse and insightful panelist shared
some very personal stories that depicted
the powerful role sports can be in the
fight for positive social change, each
panelist shared personal stories that gave
different insights and
The panel discussion featured a screening
of the TED Talk “Sport Can Start Meaningful Conversations” by Dr. Andy Billings, Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at the
University of Alabama.
“We want people to realize that sport, as Andy Billings said in the Ted Talk we showed, can and should start meaningful
conversations that create more diverse and inclusive communities,” Kluch said.
The panel discussion reflected the goals of the We Are One Team initiative, to use sport as a forum to create a dialogue, promote
friendship between stereotyped groups and environment of tolerance and inclusion on campus.
"I think we can be very proud of what we have achieved so far, we had 80 people at our first official event, which was a great start!”
Kluch said, “Multiple audience members came up to me and other panelists after the event and said that they never viewed sport
in this light. This is exactly what we want to achieve!”
Powerful Role Sports can play in Positive Social Change
We Are One Team’s year-long pho-
to campaign will allow BGSU stu-
dents, athletes, faculty, administra-
tors, and staff to share messages
that highlight diversity, inclusion,
and tolerance through the use of
sport ideals, metaphors, language,
or contexts.
Do you want to a part of the
change, too? Do you want to help
us fight stereotypes and promote
inclusion, diversity, and tolerance
through the power of sport? Then
we want you to join our movement!
To be apart on We Are One Team
follow us on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram and email us at
WeAreOneTeam.BG@gmail.com