Wearing a shirt that said Max Effort and handing out extra signs he made, Reading High senior Kobe Hopkins led his schoolmates from the Geigle down 13th Street.

The signs and the student-athletes had a simple message, “Let Us Play.”

Between 30 and 40 Reading High student-athletes staged a peaceful protest near the Geigle Wednesday, hours before the Reading School Board was scheduled to revisit its decision to suspend the fall sports season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think we should all be equal,” Hopkins said. “All the other districts get to play and I feel that that’s unfair to us.”

Hopkins, a senior linebacker on the football team, helped organize the rally along with senior running back Elijah Williams. They are trying to sway the opinions of school board members who voted 8-1 on Aug. 6 to suspend fall sports.

Since then, all the other school districts in Berks County have moved forward with falls sports. Even some of the larger city school districts such as Allentown and the Pittsburgh public schools have reversed their decisions to suspend falls sports and are now moving forward with athletics and other extracurricular activities.

McCaskey voted on Tuesday to move forward with fall sports.

“We should be able to play and not give us so much time to ourselves,” Hopkins said. “Since we’re not in school it’s giving us way too much time to get into the streets. I feel that shouldn’t happen. That’s why we need a season.”

Williams also is looking to get back on the football field for his senior season to show what he can do.

“God gave me a talent I feel will go to waste if we don’t get to play,” Williams said.

The plight of the Reading student-athletes has caught the attention of Mark Detterline and other school board members. Detterline voted against allowing sports a month ago but was heading to Wednesday’s meeting with a different outlook.

“It’s been a change of heart,” said Detterline, a 26-year-old Reading High graduate, “On Aug. 6 I thought we were doing what’s right for these kids. I thought we protecting them.

“It’s clear that they’re able to do this in a way that isn’t going to seriously lead to any kind of outbreak. We haven’t seen it. If the other districts can do it, we can do it.”

Detterline said he wasn’t sure if he would be able to convince enough other board members to change their minds, but he said the discussion needs to be revisited.

“We have a lot of student-athletes who feel like they’re lost now,” Detterline said. “They’re college aspirations are shot. Even if we do uphold our decision, we need to come up with ways to mitigate that.”

Either way, Hopkins was proud of his schoolmates for standing up together to make their voices heard.

“It just shows that we really are Knight-blooded,” Hopkins said. “We stick up for each other around here and we know what’s right and what should be done.”

As his mother, Amy Hopkins, looked on she felt both proud of her son and sad for him.

“He’s a great kid,” she said. “He doesn’t deserve to have this taken away from him.”