More than a Match: Part One

Last weekend Minnesota United hosted their first match since the tragic shooting at Annunciation School & Church in Minneapolis on 27 August. The Loons went on to draw the match with the visiting Portland Timbers and due to other results secured a berth in the MLS Cup Playoffs. For many at in St. Paul on Saturday evening the match came secondary or as a temporary escape from the recent tragedy.

I was able to speak with Wonderwall President, David Zeller on the shooting, it’s impact, and the events surrounding it.

“I didn’t realize it until Thursday, my in laws, they were watching my son that night, and they’re like, oh, by the way, your Anna’s my wife’s second cousin, his brother works at the school, and his daughter,” David said in our afternoon interview. “It was going through, like brain surgery, so it, it affected me, just generally as a parent, and then two days later, realizing, oh, it actually, like, this is like someone that actually affects me personally.”

David continued regarding how he has mentally dealt with the impact, “If you guys want to reschedule, we can reschedule like, because everybody deals with trauma differently, and at that point, we had no idea that we had someone, we knew, someone that was affected by this thing.”

Ahead of the match, MNUFC had the quietest and most beautiful moment of silence I’ve ever been apart of, which have included multiple ones before Minnesota Lynx games. I asked David how he felt about the moment and being apart of it;

“I mean, it meant a lot. That’s that was a work of all of the SGS working together to get it done. We and it came together to. Yes, like the banner itself, the banner, I should say the banner, flew from Texas to Minnesota overnight, like we got that banner.”

One of the most amazing and tearful moments was when the tifos were deployed by the Wonderwall. Two hearts reading “Fletcher” and “Harper” in memoriam to those who passed. And in the centre a travelling banner sent from Austin FC’s Los Verdes supporters reading “End Gun Violence.” The orange banner has been deployed five different times by four different teams. Sadly we all know it is not the last time the banner will be used and David spoke about what he wants to say to the next group to have it;

“That we we know it’s not the last time writing on the banner at after the banner was undeployed was one of The most heartbreaking things I’ve ever done, especially in a stadium that I consider home, consider a cauldron. I consider like having to write annunciation school Minneapolis, Minnesota, was fucking terrible, and I swear, I wish we never have to do it again, but I know the thing is, we’re gonna have to do it again, and that’s terrible.”

At the end of the day there needs to be a solution made. As I write this I am 32 years old and have lived through every major shooting event. I was one of the early groups of kids to get active shooter drills. I asked him, what would his solution be, as we need to do something to end this epidemic.

“Like every country in the world has people who have mental health issues, and the only country in the world that suffers from gun violence is the US, right? Realistically, what we can and should do is, like, just fucking ban assault rifles. Like, if nothing else, like, no one needs an assault rifle. No, in this country, right?”

“It’s fucking insane that I have to worry about my child going to school every day, whether I’m gonna see him or her at the end of the day,” he stated in the tone of an angry and worried parent.

In the next few days and we’ll bring you part two of this series, where I will have words from more folks.