A former Virginia Tech football player who scored a legal victory against her former coach has come forward on Tuesday, alleging that he benched her for refusing to take a knee in support of Black lives matter.
Kiersten Hening took her coach to court after he allegedly berated her in front of her teammates and removed her from the Hokies starting lineup, prompting her to leave the team and go to court on First Amendment grounds, “The Ingraham Angle ” reported. She allegedly refused to take a knee during a “declaration of unity” before a game.
Following his $100,000 settlement, Hening said “Ingraham’s Angle” that politics of any kind have no place in sports, and that she didn’t feel right being told to kneel in that way.
“Personally, I didn’t feel like I needed to get down on my knees to support anything,” she said. “Personally, I felt like I could stand up and support something.”
A Virginia Tech helmet
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“Personally, I think kneeling was very synonymous with o Colin Kaepernick BLM movement and movement, and I didn’t feel like I needed to.”
Hening told the trainer Charles Adair was overly harsh when he allegedly called her out after her refusal to kneel.
“It didn’t feel right… I kind of do my job and, you know, I was there for the love of the game and the love of the school,” she said. “And for me, wearing that shirt meant a lot to me, and to be called that, it was really tough.”
Ingraham read a statement from Adair, which said in part that he was “satisfied with the case against [him] was closed and [he is] free to go forward, free from any wrongdoing.”
A woman holds a Black Lives Matter flag during a George Floyd memorial event.
(Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s been hard not being able to tell my side of the story. The people I care about, whose opinions are important to me, know the truth. They know my coaching decisions are based purely on putting our team in a position to win.” Adair’s statement continued, according to Ingraham.
Ingraham said Adair’s statement implied that she was “not good enough” as a starter – and asked Hening what he thought.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Hening replied. “No. I think the numbers speak for themselves.”
“In that sense, I think [the judge] summed it up perfectly,” she said. “I think I averaged 74 minutes freshman year and 88 minutes sophomore year, so there’s definitely been a significant decrease in playing time with no real explanation as to why.”
A detail shot of a soccer ball on the field.
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Hening said he thought it was unfortunate that politics were sometimes injected into sports.
“It’s unfortunate the political climate created in collegiate sports – and not even in collegiate sports, but everywhere, you know, putting such pressure on athletes that – personally, I don’t believe politics have a place in sports,” she said. .
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