Winthrop Head Coach Calls for Everybody to “Step Up” Following Newtown Tragedy

Following a near upset against 7th ranked Ohio State on Tuesday the 18th, in his postgame news conference, Winthrop University Eagles men’s head basketball coach Pat Kelsey unwittingly stepped in the national spotlight to call for change in the wake of the Newtown, CT school shootings.

“I’m really, really lucky, because I’m gonna get on an eight hour bus ride, and I’m gonna arrive in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I’m gonna walk in to my house. I’m gonna walk upstairs. I’m gonna walk in to two pink rooms, OK? With a five year old and a four year old in that pink room with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room. I’m gonna give ‘em the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I’ve ever given ‘em,” Kelsey said remembering families in Newtown, CT who lost loved ones Friday.

Not politicizing the event and admitting that he didn’t have the solution to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, Kelsey called for elected officials, parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches, and everybody else “step up.”

Kelsey told media in attendance after the Eagle’s 65-55 loss, “I’m not gonna have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life, and I’m gonna be an agent of change with the thirteen men I get to coach every day and the two little girls I get to raise.”

CRESCENT would like to take this time to not only express our deepest condolences to the entire community of Newtown, but we want to thank Coach Kelsey for stepping up himself and using his voice to say what so many others have been thinking over the past several days.

VIDEO CREDIT: ESPN