High School Football Team Plans Response to NFL Anthem Protests

El Cajon's Christian High has a pregame ceremony to honor America

For at least the last week the talk of the sports and political worlds has been National Anthem protests at professional football stadiums.

NFL players, coaches, and owners are kneeling or sitting on benches during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.

President Trump is calling out those people and the National Football League and National Basketball Association in general on Twitter, sparking even more dramatic pregame protests.

We can debate this issue until we pass out. It’s intensely personal and deeply-rooted and neither side seems willing to give ground at the moment. In San Diego there is one team that is going out of its way to show how it feels about things.

Saturday night Christian High School in El Cajon will play its homecoming game against Santa Fe Christian High School. A group of supporters of the Patriots program led by Robert Davila (owner of Lakeside Equipment Sales & Rentals) got together with the football team and came up with a plan.

The night will look a lot like how NFL games used to look.

Before the kickoff a 40’x70’ American Flag that is flown at Navy Amphibious Base Coronado, training grounds of the U.S. Navy SEALs, will be unfurled. Several of the student-athletes will likely be not just standing for the National Anthem, but holding the flag on the field. The Anthem will be sung by Michael Sanchez from NBC’s The Voice and to top it all off, it will include a formation flyover by World War II airplanes.

This is not designed to thumb a nose at the NFL of its players or the act of quiet protest. It's just another way to make a statement.

“Any opportunity we have at Christian High School to celebrate our great nation and honor those that defend our freedom we will fully take advantage of,” said Christian High School Athletics Director David Beezer.

The festivities are expected to get underway at about 6:20 at Granite Hills High School (where Christian plays its home football games). Anyone who is a little disenchanted with the NFL right now might get a smile by seeing some high school kids stand up for what they believe in.

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