Kent State brings fans on court as sign of racial unity during anthem

The Kent State basketball team shared a remarkable moment with the crowd prior to Wednesday night’s home opener against Mississippi Valley State.

Members of the team walked into the crowd and each player invited a fan of a different race to join them on the court for the national anthem as a sign of unity. The players and fans came together as the school’s ”Flasher Brass” band performed the “Star Spangled Banner.”

It was really an incredible scene.

The idea came from senior members of the team and the captains.

“The players approached the coaching staff with this idea, and we fully supported them,” said head coach Rob Senderoff. “It takes courage for our players to make a statement like this, and I believe it is a representation of the unity in our campus community.

“It takes courage for our players to make a statement like this, and I believe it is a representation of the unity in our campus community. There’s a lot of people protesting the national anthem, or protesting the election, or religion. You see all of that nationally, and our guys wanted to make a statement. To me, it was a tremendously positive statement. Hopefully everybody can recognize that. I have a lot of African-American players on my team, and they have faced discrimination because of the color of their skin.”

“We understand all of the issues going on in our world,” said sophomore point guard Jalen Avery. “In these times, we felt it was important to show a sign of unity in our community.”

Kudos to the Golden Flashes for such a great moment.

If we could all come together this way and embrace others regardless of our differences, the divisiveness in this country would hopefully start to fade.

To make the night even more of a success for the Golden Flashes, they came away with a 93-63 win.

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