LSU has elite athletes across all sports, but the attention is not always distributed equally.
The school is known for earning a new national championship banner every year, sending players to be first-round draft picks and producing Olympic stars at every turn. In all that success, talented Tigers in the smaller sports can easily get lost.
Notable athletes such as Haleigh Bryant and Angel Reese made their mark in their sports at LSU and were recognized for it by fans and media. We all know that story.
But do we know the story about the newest addition to Team USA’s women’s soccer team?
LSU’s soccer star athlete, Sariyah Bailey, has been called up to play with the USA Women’s U-19 National Team for training in Portugal. She becomes LSU’s first active player
Bailey, No. 13 in Top Drawer’s top-100 freshmen, earned All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman Team honors while at LSU this season. In her first season, she recorded 19 starts, nine goals and seven assists.
LSU soccer, while coming off a Sweet 16 appearance last season, is used to being overlooked.
In a school defined by baseball talent, football legacies, basketball atmospheres and gymnastic, dominance some excellence shines just outside of the main spotlight.
That’s where Bailey stands. But she’s not alone.
Beach volleyball transfer Zayna Meyer arrived in Baton Rouge as one of the nation’s top setters, joining a ranked beach volleyball program. But most LSU fans don’t know her.
Meyer came from UCLA, where she played her last indoor volleyball season. The 6-foot-1 setter came to LSU’s beach volleyball team in early December.
In her redshirt sophomore season back at Long Beach State, Meyer was named the 2023 Big West Setter of the Year and then became the sixth player in Long Beach State Women’s volleyball program history to reach the 3,000 career-assist milestone, in her redshirt junior season.
She’s a talented addition to an already sought-after team. The “Sandy Tigs” are ranked No. 12 in the AVCA Preseason Poll.
Any casual LSU fan just learned something new. A diehard is hearing the same story about Bailey and Meyer. I’m not here to judge who you are, but to simply just prove a point.
But here’s the thing. Right now, LSU has excellent athletes. But as we can see, excellence doesn’t guarantee attention.
The only difference in the athletes is how much they are celebrated. At this school, success isn’t the problem. Attention is.
That’s exactly what it boils down to: fan psychology.
When you look at the sports that are celebrated and known for their greatness at LSU, it’s easy to highlight athletes in those sports. Not because they are better, but because they are seen.
Bryant and Reese are perfect examples.
During her time at LSU, Bryant filled her trophy case with five All-SEC championships, and the 2023 SEC Gymnast of the Year, award while drawing some of the biggest crowds LSU gymnastics has seen. Around the same time, Reese was named the 2024 SEC Player of the Year, drawing her own record-breaking crowds for women’s basketball.
While Bryant was becoming the first LSU gymnast to average scores over 9.900 across all four events on Friday nights, Reese was averaging 23.0 points and 15.4 rebounds on the other nights, all in the same arena.
Reese and Bryant both contributed to the first NCAA national championship titles for their programs, creating a new sense of national attention to them as athletes and to their teams.
Highly praised sports aren’t always the ones that end the season victorious. Sometimes they don’t have a Heisman winner or even a head coach. But they always have packed stands. Therefore, their athletes are recognized and celebrated all season long, which they deserve.
But those aren’t the only sports and athletes that are deserving.
The requirement isn’t to pack the LSU Beach Volleyball Stadium this weekend, but to recognize the elite athletes dressed in purple and gold, without Team USA having to do it first.
