(National Review) University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said she did not regret canceling games with Brigham Young University after a black player on Duke University’s women’s volleyball team accused BYU fans of hurling racial epithets at her in August, even after a BYU investigation found no evidence of any such behavior.
Staley canceled a scheduled home-and-home series against BYU after the initial allegations were levied by Rachel Richardson, a sophomore on Duke’s volleyball team, saying that “as a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff.”
In a statement delivered to National Review, Staley doubled down on the decision, even in light of the dearth of evidence to support her concerns.
“I continue to stand by my position. After my personal research, I made a decision for the well-being of my team. I regret that my university, my athletics director Ray Tanner and others got drawn into the criticism of a choice that I made,” wrote Staley.
Staley was not the only one to react quickly to Richardson’s allegations, as a number of media outlets and personalities reflexively criticized BYU for its culture and immediate response to the situation.
In a statement made public earlier today, BYU announced that it had “completed its investigation into the allegation that racial heckling and slurs took place,” which involved reviewing “all available video and audio recordings, including security footage and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match,” and reaching out to “more than 50 individuals who attended the event.”
