Inspiring St. Margaret’s football coach Kory Minor shares his experiences of being Black with players
Blog June 20, 2020
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Kory Minor sounded a bit weary and disheartened as he shared his struggles the last several weeks.
“It’s been rough for me,” the St. Margaret’s football coach said.
Minor has been thinking about the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of police in March. He has talked about the events with his three children and shared his experiences of being Black with his players.
The third-year head coach and former NFL player said as a Black man, his reality is that he constantly thinks about how he can return to his family safety at the end of each day.
He thinks about “everything” as he travels at least five days a week from his home in West Covina to his school in San Juan Capistrano.
Everything, he explained, includes police violence or being accused of something just because he is Black.
The former Bishop Amat, Notre Dame and Carolina Panthers player thinks of situations that many don’t need to.
“When I go to the ATM machine and there’s a white lady there, I will let her go back to her car first before I go to the ATM machine,” he cited as an example.
Many members of the Black community, including several athletes, have shared their experiences in the wake of the social justice and Black Lives Matter movement.
An unarmed Floyd died at the hands of the police in Minneapolis.
Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was reportedly shot at least eight times by police in Louisville who were executing a no-knock search warrant at her home. The names of Floyd and Taylor have been shouted by protesters across the nation.
Minor believes a major key to stopping the injustice and racism is for non-Black people to voice their outrage.
About two weeks ago, Minor, also a student advisor at St. Margaret’s, shared his experience as Black man with his players and their parents during a special Zoom conference.
The hour-and-half discussion focused on community engagement and what his team and school community could do to help fight racism.
The message was well-received.
“It was an eye-opening interaction where we were educated on Coach Minor’s experiences and allowed to walk a mile in another man’s shoes,” senior defensive end Nick Ostlund said. “He has been an inspiration to me not only as a student-athlete but … (for) his relentless devotion to athletics, education and race relations.”
