NC State athletes, Brenda Tracy turning advocacy into action with #SetTheExpectation campaign
Posted September 19, 2019 9:32 p.m. EDT
Raleigh, N.C. — It was the perfect weather for Brenda Tracy to come back to Raleigh for the first time since April. After a string of oppressively hot days, this Thursday actually felt like a fall day, with the high barely hitting 73. Tracy, a nearly lifelong Oregonian, felt more at home that way.
But she really felt at home because ever since she spoke to the male athletes at NC State back in April and shared her story of surviving a gang rape, she's now found another school and program ready to become an ally to her and her cause.
As she, members of the football team and head coach Dave Doeren handed out #SetTheExpectation bracelets and literature to students walking through Talley Student Union as the sun streamed through the windows, she couldn't stop smiling.
The football players were doing the work and the advocacy, using their influence to make their fellow students aware of her cause. She was there too, sure. But this was their doing. And that's what her cause is all about.
"It's everything," Tracy said. "I put out the call to action and then to actually see it embodied in these young men. That's a hard cosign right there. Right? Like, that makes me legit. And that's what the movement needs. That's what the message needs. That's what the mission needs. Like when one man stands up, he gives permission to another man to stand up and another and another another. And that's how a movement starts."
Tracy speaks to plenty of schools nationwide and asks them to sign her #SetTheExpectation pledge. Even some that take her cause seriously and want to help still don't sign it.
It's a pledge that commits an entire team to a zero-tolerance policy against interpersonal violence and sexual violence. No second chances. You do it, you're gone.
Senior defensive end James Smith-Williams was so moved by Tracy's presentation back in April that he wanted his teammates to sign it right away.
Doeren said he would let his leaders decide. So Smith-Williams and fellow senior cornerback Nick McCloud got up in front of their teammates and talked about why they should sign it.
"The overwhelming theme was like, if you're a good guy, what's the problem?" Smith-Williams said. "So, it was really quick. We signed it pretty much right away."
Back in April, not a lot of Power Five schools had held #SetTheExpectation football games. Smith-Williams, though, wanted to be one of them. And he wanted to do anything and everything he could to make it happen.
Growing up with a mother who was a social worker, he'd been around InterAct Wake County, a local domestic violence shelter. One of his mother's clients who'd spent time at InterAct escaping a domestic violence situation ended up relocating to Franklin County, where Smith-Williams is from. That client and their family would have Thanksgiving dinner with Smith-Williams' family.
But it wasn't just that. Smith-Williams knew plenty of women, close friends, who'd confided to him about their own experiences with sexual assault and rape. It was easy for him to identify with Tracy when she told her harrowing story.
And so he wanted to start right away in doing something tangible and positive for the cause.
"I wanted to do something like right away," Smith-Williams said. "The thought was like, 'we'll wait until fall when you're in season.' I was like, 'well, baseball is playing right now.' That's a big sporting event that has the attendance that we can do something."
So he and soccer player Vinnie Durand organized a drive to collect goods that InterAct Wake can use for the women and families who stay there during an NC State baseball game.
"I really, really pushed very hard with the administrators at the time and like they talked through it and the green-lighted it and the event was awesome."
He kept advocating for the #SetTheExpectation game for football, and the administration got behind that as well.
"It was one of those things where clearly he was moved," senior associate athletic director Raymond Harrison said. "I just think it was one of those things where we saw him fighting for this and we wanted to support him.
"I think that's what our jobs are is we talk to our student-athletes and we watch them grow and develop. What an awesome opportunity for Vinnie and James to take this on."
And now, on Saturday, Tracy will accompany the team on their Walk of Champions as they get ready to face Ball State, and they'll wear #SetTheExpectation t-shirts. They'll also sport decals on their helmets.
Harrison and others want to push credit for this to Smith-Williams, Durand and other athletes. But Smith-Williams is just as eager to deflect to Tracy.
"For me it's more like I'm excited for Brenda and #SetTheExpectation. I'm kind of on her coattails, so that's neat. But it's not about me," Smith-Williams said.
"I know there's a lot of tweets and stuff about me and articles and it's awesome. I appreciate it. But I'm trying to funnel it back to what matters because it's not really about me in any way."
And he's right - her cause continues to gain momentum. Vanderbilt held the SEC's first #SetTheExpectation game a few weeks ago, and NC State will hold the ACC's first such game.
Tracy says more and more Power 5 schools are expressing interest now, because once one or two do it, others will join in. Both Stanford and Michigan have already done it, among others. Stanford will host its third annual #SetTheExpectation game this weekend and they were the first to ever host one at any level. Tracy was sad to miss it, she said, but glad she could to be here for the ACC's first such game.
"More and more schools are taking notice. I think that when powerhouses like the ACC and the SEC step up, other schools look and they're like, what are they doing? What's going on? What is this? So yeah, more schools are reaching out. The campaign is growing. It's really taking off," Tracy said. "I'll probably have to figure out how to get another staff member. But I've been really impressed. None of this would happen without the young men and the athletes and the schools that support me. So I'm just eternally grateful."
She was on campus at NC State watching the Wolfpack practice on Thursday morning. But Tuesday afternoon, she received the biggest news of the week.
A rule she's been trying to get passed at both the collegiate level and the conference level finally caught on somewhere when the University of Texas at San Antonio adopted what has been known as the Tracy Rule.
Students that have been convicted of or pled guilty to violent or sexually abusive crimes will be prohibited from athletics.
"There's some momentum going around the policy now, too. So I'm really excited about that," Tracy said.
"With the policy thing, I just mostly think about like after I'm done and gone, like, that's something that will live after me." Her eyes welled up with tears.
"And it's something my grandbaby can look at. So that makes me proud."
