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Orlando Pride’s historic NWSL championship showcases the capabilities of coach Seb Hines, Black coaches

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the referee blew the final whistle in the National Women’s Soccer League championship game between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit on Saturday and the Pride lifted the trophy for the first time in franchise history with a 1-0 win, it was hard to know , where exactly to look when the team has crashed on the field.

Most of the team’s minions – except perhaps those aligned with the Spirit – knew the best way to give attention to Orlando Pride forward Marta, a living legend from Brazil long referred to as Rainha (queen), but never a champion until that whistle. The 38-year-old three-time Olympic silver medalist and all-time leading World Cup scorer dropped to her knees and pointed to the sky before disappearing right into a pile of dogs. Marta’s mother got here from Brazil to the United States for the first time to look at her play. Few would regret specializing in striker Barbra Banda, the prolific Zambian striker who scored the Pride’s only goal to secure the victory.

But near the sideline, Pride head coach Seb Hines, first assistant coach Giles Barnes and assistant coach Yolanda Thomas embraced, keeping off the Kansas City cold and having fun with a historic moment of Black excellence. As glitter fell to the ground inside the stadium, Hines became the first black coach to win an NWSL championship, which doubled as the first skilled title for Orlando, Florida. He is first full-time Black coach in the league. (For a short while, Hue Menzies was the coach of the Jamaica women’s national team served as interim coach at New Jersey/New York Gotham FC in 2022. In December 2023, Lorne Donaldson, the newest head coach of ReggaeGirlz, was named hired as head coach Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL league.)

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“It’s huge,” Hines said of the win in his postgame press conference. “Obviously, going into this job, I did my research. I knew (I knew) that Orlando had never won a championship between (MLS) City, Pride, Orlando Magic to call a couple of, so yes, I all the time desired to have that open (parade) bus running through the streets of Orlando.

Hines had never been a head coach before taking up the Pride, and yet in lower than three seasons he transformed a team that had made only one playoff appearance in seven years into an unstoppable force and, ultimately, a champion. Hines was a full-time assistant coach for the Pride before being promoted to interim head coach. In 2024, the Orlando Pride made NWSL history as the team with the most wins (18), longest unbeaten streak (23) and longest winning streak (eight) in a season. On October 7, they won the NWSL Shield, a trophy awarded to the team with the most points in 26 games. They had 60 points, the most in league history.

And he did it with Barnes and Thomas, who’re also Black coaches. As Pride players could possibly be heard celebrating with champagne nearby, Hines made it clear he intended to assist expand opportunities for black managers.

“I want to be a role model for other people so that they can take advantage of the opportunity I have been given. It’s a big responsibility,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun with this opportunity, so I just want to continue to advocate for more Black coaches and (to) create a more diverse league in the NWSL.”

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Hines grew up and commenced his skilled profession in England, where he was raised by a white English mother and a black American. Orlando has been his home in the US since he played for Orlando City SC in MLS in 2015. He retired two years later but remained with the club, continuing as a volunteer at youth level, before moving to Pride in 2018.

Orlando Pride coach Seb Hines (left) and forward Marta (right) during the National Women’s Soccer League championship game at CPKC Stadium on November 23 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/Getty Images

In June 2020, the Pride hired Hines as a full-time assistant coach. Two years later, he was thrust into his first head coaching position as then manager Amanda Cromwell and one other assistant were fired after a league investigation found they’d retaliated against players. Hines was promoted to interim coach on June 7 and has been confirmed as full-time coach on November 11.

“I make it through hard work,” he said at a press conference after the announcement. “I wouldn’t have gotten into this position without hard work, so I want the team to emulate my values ​​and beliefs. So next year you will find a team that will work hard and fight for every inch of the match, but will also have the freedom to play, express themselves and entertain the fans. This is a really important element because fans can come to a Pride game and have fun.”

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The Pride finished tenth out of 12 teams in 2022. In January 2023, former player Haley Carter became Pride’s vp of soccer operations and general manager and focused on improving the club’s culture. With the signing of Hines Barnes as head assistant coach in February 2023 and Thomas as assistant coach in March 2023, the Pride began to take off in earnest. Still, they finished 2023 painfully short of the playoffs, and fell short on goal difference in the final game of the season.

Hines and the team continued to level up. In March, the Pride signed Banda in what was arguably their most eye-catching signing since Marta, a prolific goal scorer who barely slowed down when she arrived in the NWSL from China. She scored 17 goals in 25 regular-season games, 4 goals in three postseason games and was nominated for NWSL MVP – all in her first season. Marta talked at length about how playing alongside Banda sharpened her own game. This offensive partnership, combined with a powerful defense that led the league in stoppages, catapulted the Pride to the top of the NWSL for much of the season. At the end of the season, Marta earned a Midfielder of the Year nomination, Emily Sams was named Defender of the Year, and Hines was awarded Coach of the Year.

Pride forward Ally Watt is the team representative for the Black Women’s Player Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Black girls in sports. She praised Hines’ achievements.

“I’m very proud to be part of his history,” she said in the mixed zone after the match, as tears rolled down her cheeks. “It just makes me proud to be his player because he pushes us day-after-day, but he’s also a trailblazer, inspiring future generations and he’s very humble about it, which also (is) just… he’s just an important leader on this meaning.”

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Orlando Pride assistant coach Giles Barnes celebrates after defeating the Washington Spirit in the 2024 NWSL Championship Game at CPKC Stadium on November 23.

Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Indeed, Hines exudes quiet confidence, at the very least in the eyes of the media, selecting his words fastidiously and sticking to the script as a black English-American determined to provide back to the Orlando community he has fallen in love with by winning the city a trophy.

In one season, the Pride won them two trophies.

“I’m still learning, I’m still developing, I’m relatively young as well, so I just want to continue to grow and learn as much as I can and also, yeah, listen to the players, listen to how they feel good,” Hines said, reflecting on the season . “Of course I actually have a mode of play and I need this team to look a certain way, but the players must consider in it and you may see that there’s a real community there. They trust me, they trust the coaching staff, and when everyone seems to be working towards these goals, you may see what we are able to achieve.

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Tamerra Griffin writes stories about women’s soccer through the lens of the Black diaspora. A former soccer player herself, she was also a correspondent for BuzzFeed News in Kenya, and reported in Sudan, Rwanda, Brazil, South Africa, Madagascar and plenty of other places.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

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Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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