Utah Women’s Basketball Team Experiences Racism in Cd’A
News Story by Cassy Benefield | FāVS News
University of Utah Women’s Basketball Coach Lynne Roberts said at a press conference Tuesday her team experienced “several instances of racial hate crimes” during their stay in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, last week (March 21).
“Racism is real and it happens and it’s awful,” Roberts said.
The team was walking to a restaurant from Coeur d’Alene Resort on Sherman Avenue when a truck displaying a confederate flag drove by with the driver speaking “racial slurs at them including the ‘N’ word,” according to a statement released by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.
The statement went on to describe a second encounter with the same perpetrator this time with more people. The individual revved their engine while all persons in the truck shouted more racial threats toward the women as they left the restaurant.
“We condemn in the strongest terms these horrendous acts of hatred and if the perpetrators are identified they must account for their actions,” the KCTFHR statement said.
‘It’s messed up’
Roberts and her team said they were shocked by the experience because coming from a college campus with so much diversity, they are not exposed to racism very often.
“For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it’s messed up and so we moved hotels. The NCAA and Gonzaga worked to get us in a new hotel and we appreciate that,” she said.
Gonzaga University hosted the NCAA Women’s First and Second Round Basketball Tournament, which Roberts and her team participated in.
UC Irvine women’s basketball team also stayed in Coeur d’Alene due to the limited space in Spokane hotels for the first and second round of the men’s NCAA tournament.
Some of these rooms opened up the day after the incident for both women’s teams to change locations when the first men’s teams in Spokane were eliminated.
‘A black eye on that experience‘
Utah Athletics released a statement Tuesday from Athletics Director Mark Harlan, Deputy A.D. Charmelle Green and Women’s Basketball Head Coach Lynne Roberts relating their disappointment in staying so far from the competition site.
“As we continue to heal, we remain very disappointed in the decision to assign our team to hotels such a great distance from the competition site in another state. We will work with NCAA leadership to make it clear that being so far removed from the site was unacceptable and a contributing factor to the impact of this incident,” the statement said.
The University of Utah filed a police report with the City of Coeur d’Alene Police Department the evening of the incident and will continue to work with authorities in their investigation.
“This should be a positive for everybody involved. This should be joyous time for our program. To have a black eye on that experience is unfortunate,” Roberts said.
Thank you for this thorough coverage of this terrrible event. It is truly a sad and revealing day for those of us who live in Idaho, one which confirms the need for human rights task forces throughout the state.
Hi Cassy,
Thanks for the article on the racism incident in CDA. Good job piecing together some of the material from various sources. I am curious about one thing: in your research, did you find anything from officials at UC Irvine about the incident? I got the impression that Irvine team/staff were with the Utah folks at the time of this hate event.
Great question. From The Spokesman-Review: “The team from visiting UC Irvine, which also stayed in Coeur d’Alene, did not witness similar conduct but requested to move ‘for the well-being and safety of our student athletes and the entire travel part,’ said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for UC Irvine.
“The South Dakota State University team stayed in Post Falls and had no problems, said spokesman Mike Lockrem.”
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/26/racial-harassment-in-coeur-dalene-mars-utahs-women/
Thank you for this important news story, Cassy. I’m sad for these students that they experienced this.
Yes. Me, too. Glad you got to read it, Daniel.