At center court before Parker volleyball’s homecoming match, both teams are in motion. On the right, the Parker varsity volleyball team passes back and forth in preparation. As the two teams begin to settle down and meet with their coaches, it is announced that all should rise for the National Anthem.

On the left of the court, the team and coaches from St. Benedict’s school forms a line, facing the American flag that hangs on the opposite wall. On the right side of the court, Parker girls are not lining up. As the music begins to play, almost every Parker volleyball player takes a knee while facing the flag, immediately calling to mind the recent protests. Behind the players, audience members in the bleachers begin to applaud. On their right knees, hands behind their backs, over 30 Parker players kneel in solidarity as the National Anthem plays.

For varsity volleyball captain Natalie Braye, a junior, and a Black Lives Matter youth protester organize, kneeling was both empowering and emotional. “I didn’t think kneeling during the National Anthem would feel like anything,” Braye said, “but I was really emotional because I was proud of my team for wanting to take a stand, and that we also had support from the crowd as well.”

Braye and varsity volleyball co-captain Moré Fabiyi, also a junior, came up with the idea of kneeling after attending a game where the anthem was played. “So we said something to the team, they seemed down with it, and we made it clear to them that it was completely optional,” Braye said. “We explained why we were doing it, and if they didn’t want to, they didn’t have to.”

From other football players, to hockey and soccer players, professional American athletes have been kneeling during the National Anthem to bring attention to the problems in this country since early September. “I’d seen it, and I was just thinking about what Colin Kaepernick did,” Braye said. “I thought it was really inspiring. I thought it was great that a lot of high school teams and college teams were standing in solidarity with him. So why shouldn’t we do it?”

In early September at a San Francisco 49ers football game, most of the 68,500 people in the stadium were standing for the National Anthem — but there was a notable exception. Kaepernick, a quarterback for the 49ers, knelt in solidarity with those who have suffered from acts of injustice committed against people of color around the country. In just 2016, over 194 black Americans have been shot and killed by members of the police force.

Since kneeling, an endless stream of criticism has hit Kaepernick. People have called him anti-American and disrespectful. On the other hand, others consider him inspirational. Following this single football game, a wave of support has risen to Kaepernick’s cause.

Even though Braye and Fabiyi were enthusiastic about kneeling, it was important to them that the team knew kneeling was not something they demanded. “Our goal was to make sure everyone was comfortable doing it and that everybody knew why we were doing it,” Fabiyi said. “It was up to them to make a decision there.”

At the Homecoming game, freshman Alex Ori, a player on the varsity team, chose to remain standing during the Anthem. “The reason I didn’t kneel first of all, my grandparents served in the military in Vietnam, and on a more general scale, in that particular instance for me, it was more important to honor the men and women that fight every day so we can kneel, so we can protest, so they can protect our rights,” Ori said. “In that particular moment, honoring the men and women that fight, and risk, and die every single day for us was more important.”

For Ori, the Anthem and the flag mean not America as it is but America as it could and should be. “I think that the flag and Anthem for me, they don’t represent America in a given point or time,” Ori said. “The flag and anthem represent a country that we’re striving to be and a country that we want to become and a group of people that we want to become. I think there are a lot of inequalities and a lot of injustice in this world, it’s pretty hard to ignore, and we have a long way to go to get to that country that we all want to strive for, but I think that having the Anthem and the flag represent that country we’re striving to be every day, I don’t want to kneel down to that hope. I want to stand up for that, and I know we have a long way to go, but until then I want to keep on standing.”

When Braye and Fabiyi brought the idea of kneeling to the team, Ori knew both that she supported the captains and that she was not going to kneel. “I can support that movement in other ways than kneeling down to a flag,” Ori said. “I think the people that support the movement and the people that kneel are so courageous as well, but I think that I’m going to support Black Lives Matter in different ways which don’t include kneeling.”

Even though Ori was the only player who did not kneel, she received only support for her choice. “People were supportive just as I was supportive of them for kneeling,” Ori said. “The great thing about our team was no one judged anyone, and that really, really meant a lot, we knew that we are a team, and even though I didn’t kneel, and they didn’t stand, we all have each others backs, and we all understand our personal views.”

When Fabiyi saw Ori kneel during the Anthem, she respected her teammate’s decision. “It’s her constitutional right to participate in the National Anthem, and she chose what she wanted to do and we support her most definitely,” Fabiyi said.

As the captains made clear, Ori knew she always had the choice to remain standing. “It was a choice from the get-go,” she said, “and they made sure everyone new was with a choice, and they never forced me to do anything.”

For Braye, kneeling was more than just standing in solidarity with people of color. “Volleyball at Parker is considered a place where a lot of black girls feel welcome, and I feel like it just makes sense,” Braye said. “Last year and my freshman year, it was just a safe place for me. If we’re going to maintain that reputation and actually hold true to being a safe place for black girls and girls of color, it was necessary.”

Even though the team had cleared their decision to kneel with the school and their coaches, no one knew how their opponent school was going to react when both the JV and Varsity teams kneeled. “They were surprised. Especially with our being a private institution that was founded by a white person, that a bunch of money comes from white people, that our leader is a white person,” Fabiyi said. “I could visibly tell that they were surprised that we’d even consider thinking about it, and specifically the mass of people that did it.”

For Fabiyi, the team’s kneeling during the anthem, surprised the people watching the game. “Looking at our school and looking at our team at that time, we look predominately white and caucasian, so they didn’t necessarily expect for us, all collectively, to take a stand for something that doesn’t necessarily pertain to people of that color,” Fabiyi said. “That’s why I think they saw us and were super surprised. All of us knew what was up and all of us were educated enough to actually understand that we wanted to do this.”

Head of the Athletics Department, Bobby Starks was aware before the Homecoming game of the team’s decision to kneel. “I so enjoy our school community, and I have faith in our school, that we do what we say, and we’re a progressive school,” Starks said, “so I didn’t have fear from the administration, or our school that there would be anything but support.”

Starks felt that this expectation held true while the anthem played at the volleyball game. “In fact when the National Anthem was played, the crowd clapped, so they provided support,” Starks said. “No negative reactions for that. It was good to see that the school community along with the internal athletic department, administration, supported everybody’s right to protest and, or support. That is what our country is built on, and our school is built on progressive ideas.”

Junior Zoë Gardner, a player on the JV team, was also in support of the team’s decision to kneel. “We were initially worried about other teams,” Gardner said, “but we’ve come to understand that if they don’t side with us, and they obviously don’t have to, and they don’t want to play us, that’s their decision.” Despite this concern, after kneeling, the Varsity volleyball team played its game against St. Benedict.

The team took the correct measures, Starks said, in showing the school that they were in solidarity with the issues this country has. “We take pride as a school, I take pride as an Athletic Director, that our student athletes and our school community as a whole are talking about these issues, and have the courage to stand up and or protest or show a sign of a protest for their ideals and what they believe in,” Starks said. “And they’re doing it in a peaceful way and in the correct way that will hopefully spark some conversations that move our school, our student athletes, and hopefully Chicago and our country forward. I supported it wholeheartedly.”

Ori’s views on the National Anthem remain the same. “I’m going to continue to stand because I think it’s important for me as a granddaughter of two war veterans to support the military, and support the men and women who fight and die everyday. But it’s not just about the military. For me, it’s also important that the Anthem and the flag remind me of the country that we are striving to be, the country we’re trying to be, and the group of people that we’re trying to become,” Ori said. “I don’t want to give up hope that we can become that country, and hopefully I can keep honoring and standing for that hope until I die.”

In the future, the Volleyball Team will continue to kneel every time the anthem comes on. As with the homecoming game, Braye and Fabiyi still want to stress that kneeling is never required. “I’m just glad my team was able to make a coherent idea for themselves because it was definitely a choice, and that’s the one thing that we wanted to drive home so much,” Fabiyi said.