ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Orlando Pride marked 10 years since the Pulse nightclub shooting with 49 seconds of celebration during their match against Bay FC at Inter&Co Stadium, choosing a moment of unity to honor the victims and support the Orlando community.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s remembrance included 49 additional covered seats in the 100 section of the stadium, a tribute connected to the 49 rainbow-colored seats inside the stadium that have been dedicated to the victims since 2017.<\/p>\n
Kaia Hyde, vice president of community impact and diversity, equity and inclusion for Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride, said the club\u2019s support for the community is ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so proud of this organization and how we choose to stand alongside our community partners and our fans and supporters,\u201d Hyde said. \u201cAnd all those who support this beautiful game. It\u2019s truly a privilege to be able to bring our community together and to show that we are supported in our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clubs’ remembrance of the victims began six days after the mass shooting on June 12, 2016, when Orlando City Soccer played the San Jose Earthquakes.<\/p>\n
Seb Hines, a former Orlando City forward and the current Orlando Pride head coach, was on the pitch for that match. He said the moment remains with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a surreal moment,\u201d Hines said. \u201cYou never want go through these moments. It was such an act of selfishness and disaster around the city. But for me, it brought the city together.\u201d<\/p>\n
During that 2016 match, play stopped in the 49th minute as the stadium remembered the victims killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the game stopping in the 49th minute, and we were all taking that moment to just remind ourselves and remember the ones who lost their lives,\u201d Hines said. \u201cYou look around stadium and see all the different colors. We felt we didn\u2019t just have to do it for ourselves but do it for the city of Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hines later scored on a header in the 66th minute, giving Orlando City a lead. He said the goal represented more than the match itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we weren\u2019t able to win the game,\u201d Hines said. \u201cBut you could see the fans and their buy-in and what it meant to them. I\u2019ll always be very grateful for that opportunity to go out there and represent Orlando. Be out there to give my best and my all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyde said the permanent rainbow seats remain a daily reminder of the club\u2019s commitment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day is a reminder that we support and that we are inclusive and that we remain Orlando United,\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Orlando Pride marked 10 years since the Pulse nightclub shooting with 49 seconds of celebration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,1238,274,12825,770,28,1236,115,768,139,141,140,3968,16956,110,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-301589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-brandon-green","tag-community-news","tag-florida","tag-florida-sports","tag-news","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-pride","tag-pulse-shooting","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}