Women’s soccer pays tribute to George Floyd

Members of the Chapman women’s soccer team participated in a Black Lives Matter fundraiser, and ran 8.46 miles to pay tribute to George Floyd. Photo courtesy of Lily Jose.

Throughout the past several months, many professional athletes across major sports leagues have been on the front lines of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement – marching, kneeling during the national anthem and sporting BLM shirts as forms of protest against police brutality and systemic racism in America. Although on a smaller scale, that activism from athletes has trickled to a collegiate level. And in the midst of their fall season being postponed indefinitely, one athletic team at Chapman has decided to take a stand as a part of the movement.

On June 8, Chapman women’s soccer participated in a fundraiser to help raise $1,000 for BLM. As part of the event, athletes were to take part in some form of activity lasting exactly eight minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on George Floyd’s neck. 

Incoming sophomore midfielder Lily Jose took the challenge a step further by running 8.46 miles, rather than adhering to the 8:46 time limit, around her home neighborhood in Northern California.

“Using your platform for anything that you feel needs a say in the world is huge,” Jose said. “As sports fanatics and athletes, it’s a great way to spread the word.”

The “Collegiate Athletes Run for Black Lives Matter” fundraiser was started by an organization called athletes4CHNGES, “a student-athlete led organization dedicated to promoting community, humanity, news, gender, equality and solidarity.” The idea was for athletes to post a screenshot of the activity they completed on their social media accounts, while also adding any sort of educational material they felt enhanced their story. The first team to actively announce participation in this event was the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) women’s soccer team, which is how Jose heard about the event. 

“Originally it was just for Division I (teams), but my girlfriend is a goalkeeper (on UCSB) so she spread it to Chapman,” Jose said.

Once the word caught wind, it took off throughout the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III community. Other athletes at Chapman committed to participating in the fundraiser, including women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer and swimming. Multiple teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) hopped on board as well. When it was all set and done, the fundraiser collected nearly $80,000 from its original $1,000 goal in the span of less than two months. 

Senior midfielder and defender Riley Pidgeon was ecstatic to see the unity demonstrated between the women’s soccer team and the larger athletic community at Chapman. 

“It’s not easy to run 8.46 miles by yourself,” Pidgeon said. “It was so awesome to see everyone get together to not only exercise, but do it for such an important cause.”

The majority of the women’s soccer team that was in the Chapman area and was able to participate in the running traveled around Orange and the Newport Beach areas. Not everyone posted their activity on social media, yet Jose and Pidgeon appreciated all the positive support they received from their teammates.

“Even if they didn’t post it, that didn’t mean they weren’t supporting it … people choose what they want to post on social media,” Jose said. “It was a choice for whoever wanted to participate in it … and it was a good thing (so many people participated).”

Jose and Pidgeon recognized the need for continued action to occur at Chapman. The same day the fundraiser was held, Black Student Union released an action plan to improve diversity and inclusion on campus. Both players agreed it is a university filled with political diversity, and that continued activism from organizations from Chapman is a step in the right direction to promote unity.

“It’s brought to light many things Chapman can fix,” Pidgeon said. “It started a conversation and an action plan that we can implement at Chapman … this was just the beginning.”