A look at the helmets Virginia Tech players will be wearing in their bowl game on Friday.(Photo: Twitter Image via @VTFBEquipment)
Scott M Gleeson, USA TODAY Sports
The Virginia Tech campus knows all too well the resonating pain of a horrific tragedy.
With
the school's football team slated to play against Rutgers on Friday in
the Russell Athletics Bowl, the Hokies will be wearing a special helmet
decal to honor both the Newtown, Conn., school shooting victims and the
victims of the similar tragedy that took place on Virginia Tech's campus
in 2007's mass school shooting.
The Roanoke Times
reports that the decal is half green for Sandy Hook Elementary School
and half orange for Virginia Tech with the number 58 in the center,
representing the combined number of victims at the schools in the
shooting incidents. It also has the word "Prevail" written across it.
"We've been through what those people up in Sandy Hook are going through," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said via The Times.
"We prevailed in Blacksburg. If anything, it brought us closer and
[made us] more determined. The same thing is happening there, where the
community is just coming together.
"It's a terrible thing to
happen, but we've got to prevail," Beamer added. "We can't let one
person define Blacksburg or Virginia Tech. They can't let one person
define them."
Additionally, the team is wearing a large ribbon on
the side of their practice helmets this week. A smaller decal will be
placed on the back of the helmet for the bowl game.
Contributing: The Associated Press
USA TODAY