Despite being 563 miles away from Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Virginia Tech knows exactly what they are experiencing.

“We’ve been through what those people up in Sandy Hook are going through,” Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer said.  “We prevailed in Blacksburg.  If anything, it brought us closer and more determined and the same thing is going to happen there. 

“It’s a terrible thing to happen but we have to prevail.  We can’t let one person define Blacksburg or Virginia Tech and we can’t let one person define them.”

The Hokies will be wearing a special green and orange ribbon on their helmets during practice this week to honor the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting and the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting that happened in 2007. 

In orange lettering the number 58 will be in the middle of the ribbon to honor the numbers of victims lost between the two tragedies.  Also, the initials for each school are on the bottom of the decal.  During the Russell Athletic Bowl the team will wear a small version of the decal on the back of their helmets.  Coaches will wear a ribbon on their hats during the game as well. 

The twitter hash tag #Prevail58 was started by the Virginia Tech equipment room twitter account and will be used throughout the week.

Tech is one of many athletic teams to honor the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary.  Many professional teams had decals that read “S.H.E.S.” and Xavier University men’s basketball team wore green and white jerseys that said “Sandy Hook” on the front last week.