With two words across the front of its warm-up shirts, the University of Toledo women’s basketball team chose to use its platform as college athletes to send a message of positivity, unity, and inclusion.
“Embrace Diversity,” as the shirts say, is a motto of sorts for a Rockets team that includes players from seven different countries — England, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada, in addition to the United States — and seven different states — Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina.
“We just wanted to bring awareness to what is going on in the world and in this country,” said Mikaela Boyd, a junior from Hillside, Ill.