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Within the aftermath of a latest incident during which a BYU fan allegedly yelled racial slurs at a Duke volleyball participant throughout a match, the South Carolina girls’s basketball staff has introduced they’ll not face BYU to start the season.
Gamecocks coach Daybreak Staley and South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner issued statements Friday confirming the choice to cancel an upcoming home-and-home sequence scheduled to happen within the 2022–23 and ’23–24 seasons. The Gamecocks have been set to host the Cougars of their season opener on Nov. 7 earlier than touring to Utah for a contest subsequent yr.
This system is at present engaged on finalizing one other opponent for the opener.
“As a head coach, my job is to do what’s greatest for my gamers and employees,” Staley stated. “The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home, and I don’t really feel that that is the precise time for us to interact on this sequence.”
Tanner added, “Daybreak and I’ve mentioned her ideas on the state of affairs. I help Daybreak and all of our coaches of their proper to schedule video games and opponents which can be greatest for his or her groups.”
Brigham Younger has been beneath fireplace within the week because the on-campus incident occurred on Aug. 26. In the course of the match, Rachel Richardson, Duke’s solely Black starter, turned the topic of racial slurs that got here from a fan sitting in BYU’s pupil part, according to the Associated Press; Richardson’s godmother additionally stated on social media she was referred to as a racial slur “each time she served” and “threatened by a white male that instructed her to observe her again going to the staff bus. A police officer needed to be put by their bench.”
The incident led to the varsity banning the fan, who was reportedly not a pupil, from all athletic venues on the faculty. BYU introduced the choice in a statement, saying the college “won’t tolerate habits of this type. Particularly, using a racial slur at any of our athletic occasions is totally unacceptable and BYU Athletics holds a zero-tolerance strategy to this habits.”
“We wholeheartedly apologize to Duke College and particularly its student-athlete competing final night time for what they skilled,” the assertion continued. “We would like BYU athletic occasions to offer a secure surroundings for all, and there’s no place for behaviors like this in our venues.”
Two days after the incident, Richardson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Ellicott Metropolis, Maryland, issued a statement addressing the state of affairs and her strategy going ahead.
“This isn’t the primary time this has occurred in faculty athletics and sadly it probably won’t be the final time,” Richardson stated. “Nonetheless, every time it occurs we as pupil athletes, coaches, followers, and directors have an opportunity to teach those that act in hateful methods.”
She continued, “Though the heckling ultimately took a psychological toll on me, I refused to permit it to cease me from doing what I like to do and what I got here to BYU to do: which was to play volleyball. I refused to permit these racist bigots to really feel any diploma of satisfaction from considering that their feedback had ‘gotten to me,’ So, I pushed by way of and completed the sport.
“Due to this fact, on behalf of my African American teammates and I, we don’t wish to obtain pity or to be checked out as helpless. We don’t really feel as if we’re victims of some tragic unavoidable occasion. We’re proud to be younger African American girls; we’re proud to be Duke pupil athletes, and we’re proud to face up in opposition to racism.”
