The court granted Virginia Tech women’s soccer ex-player permission to continue the lawsuit against her former coach. The player filed a lawsuit in 2021 for the incident that occurred in 2020.

Kiersten Hening played as a midfielder and defender for Virginia Tech Hokies between 2018-20. The player said in her lawsuit that she played for the most minutes on the team. The player refused to take a knee before a game as a demonstration.

The team’s coach benched Kiersten Hening for not taking a knee

The team was demonstrating for the Black Lives Matter movement and urged the players to kneel while reading the statement of unity. Unlike her teammates, Kiersten Hening kept standing during the pregame demonstration.

It was at this moment that the coach was not happy with the player. The player accused coach Charles Adair of benching her and creating an environment that forced her to quit the team. The player added that her coach was not a big fan of her political views, and the situation went out of hand after the incident.

It led the player to file a lawsuit in 2021 against Charles Adair. In the lawsuit, Hening said she “supports social justice and believes that black lives matter” but she said she “does not support BLM the organization.” Hening added that she disagrees with Black Lives Matter’s “tactics and core tenets of its mission statement, including defunding the police.” 

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The federal Judge on December 2, 2022, ruled that the lawsuit can go to trial. “Hening, who had been a major on-field contributor for two years prior to the 2020 season, also asserts that Adair removed her from the starting lineup for the next two games and drastically reduced her playing time in those games because she had engaged in this protected First Amendment activity. As a result, Hening resigned from the team after the third game of the season,” a federal judge noted.

The judge slammed Adair for not playing Hening and highlighted how drastically her average playing time came down. Although, Adair made an argument that two other players who refused to kneel kept playing normally, and asked the judge to reject the lawsuit. The judge denied the argument.

Virginia Tech Hokies play college soccer

The team started to play soccer in college soccer in 1980 with two teams, men’s and women’s. It competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s first division. Their highest achievement in NCAA for them was in 2013 when they reached the semifinals.

The team played in the Atlantic 10 Conference from 1995 to 2001 before moving to the Big East Conference (2001-2004). They play currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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Let us know your thoughts on the lawsuit of Kiersten Hening and the way coach Adair handled the situation.