ASU Soccer: Impact of Thursday night game goes beyond pink for Sun Devils

“The national anthem and the flag means a lot of different things for a lot of different players.” – Graham Winkworth

This was the message delivered by the head coach of the Arizona State women’s soccer team after Thursday night’s match against UCLA on breast cancer awareness night. While the Devils lost 3-0, an arguably bigger story on the night took place before kickoff.

After the UCLA starters were introduced, ASU’s starters were announced as well. Following that, as it has all season, the national anthem was performed. This time, however, the Sun Devil lineup looked different. Following the final introduction, sophomore Christina Edwards left her place in line to join teammate Jazmarie Mader. The two then took a knee simultaneously and held that pose for the length of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Two and a half hours before the start of the match, Mader sent out a tweet reading “You’ve got to stand up for what you believe in.”

The vote of encouragement from Winkworth and support from her entire time assisted in giving Mader the confidence to initiate the movement and made it easier for her to help spread the message that she intended to when making the decision.

“The fact of the matter is that the world is hurting,” Mader said. “In soccer, when someone’s hurt, everybody takes a knee. I just feel that with everything happening in the world right now and such a platform that I have as a collegiate athlete, I should stand for equality and rights of everybody.”

Kneeling was her way of standing up for what she believes in and was not something she had decided on the spur of a moment.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a really long time,” she explained after the game. “Ever since (Colin) Kaepernick did it, it kind of brought it to my attention and I think people are reading into it in so many different ways.”

In the 2016 NFL preseason, Kaepernick, the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers sat during the national anthem, later opting to take a knee. That movement slowly spread across the league over the remainder of the season.

The protest picked up traction early this NFL season, with large portions of teams showing protest in solidarity and even saw a spread to other sports, including Major League Baseball, where Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell knelt before a game in Oakland. Now, the efforts of raising awareness have spread outside of professional sports and onto the collegiate pitch in Tempe.

Mader went to Winkworth first, seeking his approval and quickly received his blessing, along with that of the program administration.

With the support of those above her, Mader then turned to her teammates. In the team’s group chat, she notified the other girls of her plans and invited them to join her if they were comfortable or wanted to.

Enter Christina Edwards.

Edwards sent a separate text to Mader after seeing the message to the group, indicating support for her fellow forward.

“Of course, I would love to join her because she’s my teammate, she’s my sister and I support anything that she believes in,” Edwards said. “I believe in it as well and I don’t want her to ever feel alone. I think it’s also an important narrative to start and I mean it’s been started all over the nation.”

To Edwards, Mader is more than a teammate — she is a sister. By kneeling, she wanted to make sure her best friend knew that she was not alone in anything she or anyone else did.

“Equality is super important, black or white, she’s my best friend and my sister, so I just wanted her to know that I was right there with her,” the sophomore said.

While the meaning of the national anthem is different to everyone, as mentioned by Winkworth, the meaning to the protest with Edwards revolved around what she sees in her everyday life and her belief in supporting her friends.

“I see it all over campus, in my community, whether in Arizona or Oregon and it hurts my heart,” Edwards said. “Whether it’s about race or religion, anything, I think it’s super important that our team stays together and is on the same page in supporting each other and their belief systems and their actions, as long as they’re nonviolent protests, I can wholeheartedly get behind that. And that’s just what it means to me, it’s just supporting them in their endeavors.”

The act garnered support across social media, including fellow student-athletes. ASU men’s basketball player Shannon Evans II, sent out tweet expressing his respect.

Arizona State’s Mader and Edwards were not alone before the game, though, as four of UCLA’s 11 starting players took one knee to the ground as well, as did several members of their bench

Sophomore midfielder Jessie Fleming, sophomore defender Kaiya McCullough, senior defender Gabrielle Matulich, and sophomore goalkeeper Teagan Micah (an Australian native) all knelt as well, meaning one quarter of those that started the game took a knee before kickoff.

Winkworth, a native of England, chose to stand for the national anthem as a token of gratitude for the way he has been welcomed into the United States of America, but respects the courage of his players and expressed the support from the entire soccer program to the media following the match on Thursday.

“I choose to stand up for the flag because the flag is special to me in a different way because I’m very happy that America has welcomed me the way it has,” he said. “The flag is very important for different people in different ways and I respect our young ladies that knelt just as much as the ones who didn’t. It’s up to them and ASU soccer will support our girls in whatever their decisions are in that sense.”

Additionally, on a night initially earmarked for breast cancer awareness, the team as a whole showed support for the victims of the recent attacks in Las Vegas, with everyone wearing a white wristband on their left wrist.

“All of us decided to come together for Vegas,” Mader explained. “I think it all kind of hit home, we have a few players that are from Vegas and we just wanted her to know that we all have her back.”

Freshman Jadyen Nogues attended Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas. Redshirt senior Megan Delaney, who saw her first game action since the season opener when she entered the game in the 51st minute, grew up in the city as well.

Between the pink uniforms and white wristbands for the entire roster, and with Edwards and Mader kneeling, Thursday’s game concluded with more meaning than any other this season. While the impact Edwards and others may only reach a small community for now, the potential for the movement to spread grows greater as an increasing number of players take a stand every day in standing up for what they believe in.

Nicholas Badders is a contributor to the Walter Cronkite Sports Network. You can reach him on Twitter @BadderUpSports.

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