Renown Basketball Coach from Norristown Draws from Personal Experience to Warn about the Perils of Travel Ban

Norristown’s Geno Auriemma, the highly successful basketball coach who is only two games away from leading the woman’s Huskies team to its 100 consecutive victory, highlights his immigrant roots in the U.S. to warn about the perils that can come from the current administration’s travel ban, writes Cindy Boren for The Washington Post.

“It’s a bad road we’re traveling on,” he noted.

Auriemma, who was still a child when his parents arrived from southern Italy, admitted that his own struggles as a poor newcomer were a little easier as he looked no different from the kid living next door.

Today, he says, the country is going down a path that would deny others all the amazing opportunities this nation has to offer and which he has experienced firsthand. He is quick to point to sports as an area offering a powerful lesson for both acceptance and inclusion.

“You know in the world of sports what you look like has got — where you go to church, where you pray — has got nothing to do with whether you’re accepted or not,” he said.

Read more of the interview at The Washington Post by clicking here.