Pride share support for BLM
When the Orlando Pride will take the pitch for the first time in 2020 on Saturday, they’ll use the opportunity to elevate a message — Black lives matter.
After missing the NWSL Challenge Cup, the team will play the North Carolina Courage on the road. The match will kick off at 1 p.m. and air on CBS (WKMG-Channel 6). Pride players are using the opportunity to promote a message against racism and police brutality in front of a national audience.
“Right now, in our country and in the world, we’re going through a really hard time,” Pride striker Sydney Leroux said in a video released by the team Friday. “We need change. Change starts with you; change starts with me. I know that we can do this together. I know that Black lives are important, Black lives are powerful and Black lives matter.”
The Pride’s awareness campaign will extend onto the field during their first game of 2020 on Saturday, when the team will wear warm-up tops dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black members of the Pride will wear warm-up shirts featuring the names of people who have been killed by police or due to their race, including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Tamir Rice and Atatiana Jefferson.
The shirts for the remaining players will feature the message — “Say Their Names.”
The club collaborated with the players to design the warmup shirts, photograph players in the shirts and create a video ahead of the team’s first road game in North Carolina.
Pride players said the message, however, comes entirely from conversations among the Orlando athletes.
They have supported the national movement against police brutality and racism since protests surged following the death of George Floyd in May.
Nearly half of the starting lineup — including stars Ali Krieger, Toni Pressley and Leroux — participated in marches through downtown Orlando in June.
“I think any time you can get a group of the closest people around you, supporting the same cause and the same things, it always brings you closer together,” Pressley said.
Although players protested together this summer, this weekend marks the first time they have been able to take a collective stand on game day.
Players were prepared to participate in protests throughout the NWSL Challenge Cup, but they could not after the team was forced to withdraw due to COVID-19 test results. The Pride have joined other league-wide initiatives, including a push to highlight local Black-owned business in every NWSL market.
In the months since the Challenge Cup started, much has changed. Thirteen Pride players are out on loan, and their spots have been filled by rookies and short-term signings. But regardless of their experience on the team, Pressley said Pride players remained unified in their efforts to oppose injustice and inequality.
“I think that’s something that we take a lot of pride in,” Pressley said. “It definitely means something to us being able to show our support and solidarity with this movement and to take great pride in that.”