Va. Tech to wear Sandy Hook helmet decals

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ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 25 (UPI) -- The Virginia Tech football team will wear decals honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Coach Frank Beamer said Tuesday.

The Hokies will wear ribbon symbols on their helmets to remember those slain Dec. 14 at the Connecticut elementary school as well as victims of a similar tragedy at Virginia Tech in 2007, Beamer told The Roanoke Times in Orlando, Fla., as the team prepared to play Rutgers in Friday's Russell Athletic Bowl.

The decals include the word "Prevail" and the number 58 -- the total number of victims of both school shootings.

"We've been through what those people up in Sandy Hook are going through," he said. "We prevailed in Blacksburg. If anything, it brought us closer and [made us] more determined. The same thing is happening there, where the community is just coming together.

"It's a terrible thing to happen, but we've got to prevail," the coach added. "We can't let one person define Blacksburg or Virginia Tech. They can't let one person define them."