This feature originally appeared in the 2022 Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.




Riley Drullinger realized she couldn't be a background character any longer.

The rising senior on Cal's lacrosse team has always considered herself an activist, but one who prefers to do her work inconspicuously. But when her attention to different causes intersected with her own personal story, she decided she had no choice but to assume a visible leadership role.

Drullinger is the founder and president of Bears United, a student-athlete group that champions acceptance, diversity and inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community and beyond. Drullinger became involved with the group as she negotiated her own personal journey with her sexual identity.

"I've always been an activist and have wanted to see change and get involved in things, but I've always been kind of a background character," Drullinger said. "When I first got involved with this, I kind of thought I would be just another group member. When I realized it was kind of this opportunity to step into more of a leadership role, I looked at that as a challenge. It was almost like taking a risk for me and pushing myself and challenging myself for something that was not only very personal to me, but that I feel like was a resource we needed to have for our student-athletes."

It was at the beginning of Drullinger's sophomore year that assistant coach Denise Wescott encouraged her to join a small group of student-athletes and staff that was hoping to reconstruct a previous LGBTQIA+ group in Cal Athletics called SAGSA (Student-Athlete Gay Straight Alliance). It was a small group with just one other student-athlete at the time, but Drullinger was able to get a couple of teammates to get involved as well. The following year, the group rebranded itself as "Bears United," with Drullinger serving as president.

Drullinger remains the only student-athlete who is consistently involved, but has received tremendous support from Cal Athletics administrators such as Jessie Stewart, the Director of Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships with the Cameron Institute, Dr. Ty-Ron Douglas and Bobby Thompson from the department's DEIBJ office, Wescott and more.

"I think sometimes reluctant leaders are some of the best leaders, and Riley is definitely someone who was not seeking out a leadership position within Cal Athletics," Stewart said. "But she was really motivated – it kind of found her just through her own life experience, and realizing there was a gap and a need and an opportunity for her to step up and kind of take Bears United to the next level."

With the guidance of Stewart, Wescott and others, Bears United came up with a constitution, mission statement and resource handbook. The lacrosse team also held its second annual Pride Game last season in April against Colorado.

While Drullinger would like to see Bears United grow into a bigger group, she is happy with the organization's foundation and the work it is currently doing.

"The reason I took this over is I saw a need for it," Drullinger said. "I saw that nobody else was going to take this opportunity to build this group, and that this has been something that has been kind of left in the dust for many years. This was my opportunity to get involved and make a change. Speeches and Zoom calls were super nerve-racking to me, but it's something I thought I could push myself for the cause I was passionate about."