As the season opener approached, first-year Greenwood volleyball coach Natalie Kitchin gathered her team to discuss pre-match routines and how she would like things to be done.
When it came time to discuss lining up for the national anthem, she had one simple question — “Is anyone planning on protesting?”
Two hands went up. And when the Woodmen lined up before their Aug. 15 home match against Mt. Vernon, two knees hit the ground for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallerySophomores Mya Ayro and Ella Dean had not coordinated with one another ahead of time. Each had her own personal reasons for choosing to kneel during the anthem; both cited the events of this summer, beginning with the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in late May.
That hit home for Ayro, who happens to be the only Black player on the Greenwood roster.
“It’s the fear of thinking, ‘What if my family’s next?’” Ayro said. “I can’t really do anything (else), because I’m 14, and I can’t go out and do all the walking and stuff because I don’t have a ride and my parents don’t have the time. This is the only way I can get my word out.”
“I’ve seen on the news everything that’s happening, and it’s terrible,” Dean added. “I really wanted to just show I’m against that. I wanted to push for progress.”
Ayro and Dean are the first Johnson County athletes to take such a public stand before games.
Kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality first gained national attention when Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, did so during the 2016 season.
Numerous other athletes have followed in recent years, including U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe. The practice gained much more traction this year after the murder of Floyd sparked weeks of nationwide protests and brought more widespread attention — and approval — to the Black Lives Matter movement. During the opening week of the Major League Baseball season, numerous players took a knee either before or during the anthem; the Washington Nationals and New York Yankees all did so together before their season opener.
Such protests might not be quite as popular in a largely conservative area such as Johnson County, but Ayro and Dean aren’t worried about how their actions will be received. They’re simply standing — er, kneeling — for a cause they believe in.
“That made me want to do it even more,” Dean said of the potential local backlash. “I wanted people to see me and maybe confront those feelings they have.”
“I know my stance, and I know what has happened,” Ayro added. “I know there will be people against me doing this, but I know how to back myself up, and I’ve got my team to defend me.”
Indeed she does.
Though none of the other Woodmen have joined Ayro and Dean in protesting thus far, they are united in their support for their teammates.
Kitchin wanted to make sure that would be the case.
“We just talked to the whole program, JV and varsity together, and said, ‘Regardless of what you may believe in or not believe or whatever, we’re a team and we’re going to respect one another and be there for one another,’” the coach said. “And you can see during the national anthem, some kneel and some don’t, but regardless, they’re hanging on to each other and being one.”
“I completely support them,” senior Siena Halfaker said. “I, personally, am not going to protest the anthem, but I support them doing it and I wouldn’t think less of them for doing it, either — and I know the rest of our team feels the same way.”
Naturally, word of the two players’ choice protest has traveled quickly around the hallways at Greenwood; high schools are good like that. So far, both Ayro and Dean say that the feedback they’ve gotten from their peers has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’ve gotten a lot of people talking to me,” Ayro said, her mask unable to conceal her smile. “It’s mostly supportive. There’s some people who are just curious as to why I’m doing it, because they’re trying to learn from me and from other people.”
If people can learn and perhaps build a greater understanding from it, then the mission will have been accomplished.
