With national anthem protests now firmly part of the conversation for college athletes, Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder acknowledges that an element of fear is rippling through his profession.
Across the country, coaches and administrators are grappling with how to handle players who want to engage in some form of protest regarding police violence against African-American communities. While the general impulse — and the correct one, by the way — is to support the players’ efforts to make a statement, administrators also feel a responsibility to make sure athletes understand that it will draw attention and there might be public backlash and criticism from fans.
That backlash can also land on the coach.
“I do in a way think coaches are fearful of doing anything that’s outside the norm because you don’t know what the repercussions will be for you,” Wilder told USA TODAY Sports.
Despite those concerns, Wilder has taken a proactive approach with his players and engaged them last week on how they want to express themselves.
“All the kids are hurting right now,” Wilder said. “I talk about these matters on a regular basis with our kids, and all our kids talk about it, so I try to understand how they feel and what they’ve been through in their lives and what they’re going through now, but at the end of the conversations the rhetorical question I always ask them is are we going to be part of the solution or are we going to add to the noise?”
Last week before Old Dominion’s game against UTSA, players wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts during warm-ups. Then, once they came out in uniform, they joined hands in a large circle and raised them above their heads while facing the crowds. It was something they came up with at the team breakfast before the game, and Wilder is calling it the “circle of unity.”
Old Dominion football is also tying it into a mentoring program for local youth in the Norfolk area called “WALT” — Watch, Accept, Listen and Tolerate — that will bring in different groups from across campus to work with kindergarten through eighth graders in the community.
“Our team feels like there needs to be a generational change," Wilder said. "Kids are born without bias or cultural dysfunction and they don’t hate anybody, but they learn it, so the rhetorical question we’re asking people is who’s helping the parents and teachers? And we just feel strongly this is a generational change so we did the circle of unity to bring attention to the fact we all inherit the same earth and then to help get the word out.”
Though the “circle of unity” is clearly non-controversial, Wilder confirmed that Old Dominion did get some negative feedback from fans about the “Black Lives Matter” shirts. Wilder, however, said he had the backing of the administration and stood behind his players but prepared them in advance that it would generate headlines.
“That was something that our players felt really strongly about,” Wilder said. “They were passionate about it. It was a one-time thing. They made their point, they got their message out, but out of respect for them and the fact Black Lives Matter is a very powerful movement and has a strong voice with a number of the players on our team, I told them it was their decision.
“And it wasn’t just our black players that were wearing the shirts. There were white players, Hispanic players. I was proud of them for expressing themselves. For me, as a college coach working with a locker room that is black, white, Hispanic, all different backgrounds, if I try to suppress their ability to express themselves then in my opinion I’m part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
