South Carolina Women’s Basketball coach Dawn Staley recently claimed she has no intention of offering an apology for pushing Rachel Richardson’s accusations against Brigham Young University (BYU) until Richardson changes her story.
Dawn Staley via News 19 WLTX YouTube
Richardson, who plays volleyball for Duke University, claimed that she and her African American teammates were ” targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of [a] match” against BYU.
She added, “My teammates and I had to struggle just to get through the rest of the game, instead of just being able to focus on our playing so that we could compete at the highest level possible.”
Rachel Richardson Twitter
She went on to lecture BYU writing, “This is an opportunity to dig deep into closed cultures which tolerate amoral racist acts, such as those exhibited Friday night, and change them for the better. It is not enough to indicate that you are not racist, instead you must demonstrate that you are anti-racist.”
Rachel Richardson Twitter
In an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Richardson added to her accusations saying, “At the end of the second set I had gone back to serve and they heckled throughout the entire game. That’s just a part of sports. You get used to playing through extreme environments like that.”
“And very distinctly I heard a very strong, negative racial slur,” she claimed. “And then the next time I went back to serve I heard it extremely clear again, but that was the end of the game.”
Rachel Richardson of @dukeVB shares what happened at BYU this weekend and how she is moving forward with love and compassion while advocating for change. @rachrich03 pic.twitter.com/Lw3tWQ7yrt
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) August 30, 2022
Richardson continued her telling of events, “So we switched sides and I went to a teammate that I’m super comfortable, super close with and I told her what had happened and immediately she was like, “Alright, let’s go tell coach.’ She came with me, we told our coaches, and they went to the officials.”
“The officials, we saw them speaking with the BYU staff and then we were told someone was speaking to the student section, and I was alright, and that was the end of it,” she detailed. “We played our third set on the opposite side of the net from them. And then in the fourth set we went back to that side, it was almost as though the atmosphere of the student section had changed.”
Richardson went on, “Even my teammates who were on the bench, my black teammates who were on the bench who don’t play; they were being called out, pointed at. It was really confusing as to why. That’s when the racial slurs and heckling — it just grew more extreme, more intense.”
Rachel Richardson via ABC11 YouTube
Following Richardson’s accusations against BYU, Staley and the University of South Carolina announced their decision to cancel a home-and-home set of games against BYU.
The statement read, “The University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball series with BYU, with games scheduled for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, has been canceled.”
Staley issued a statement explaining the reasoning, “As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff. The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home, and I don’t feel that this is the right time for us to engage in this series.”
Dawn Staley via South Carolina Gamecocks YouTube
During an appearance at the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Staley further explained her decision, “It wasn’t a knee jerk reaction obviously because I don’t knee jerk anything. I vetted it. I talked to various people that was a part of the situation. And I just felt like — I slept on it a few nights and I just woke up with the same just gut feeling that I should not put our players in that situation.”
“I did not discuss it with our players,” she continued. “I did tell them Friday that it’s going to be happening and they nodded in affirmation.”
Staley went on, “I didn’t do it to condemn BYU. I did not do that. This was a selfish decision. I was only thinking about South Carolina Women’s Basketball. And I wanted to handle it on my own, which is not hopefully involve anybody else that have to deal with it, meaning our administrators.”
“Although Coach Tanner was really good about supporting it,” she said. “I didn’t want to bring up Rachel as well because I didn’t want her to relive it. I just wanted to make sure that our players didn’t have to endure that. Because I don’t have the words if something were to happen in that manner. I don’t have the words to comfort them.”
“So I’d rather just not put ourselves in that situation,” she concluded.
Coach Dawn Staley via Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM
A report in The Salt Lake Tribune at the end of August revealed that “campus police say it doesn’t appear the man who was eventually banned was the person shouting the N-word.”
In fact a police report obtained by the outlet noted, “There was nothing seen on the game film that led me to believe [the man who was banned] was the person who was making comments to the player who complained about being called the N-word.”
BYU Police Lt. George Besendorfer also told the outlet, “When we watched the video, we did not observe that behavior from him.”
Rachel Richardson via Holly Rowe Twitter
This report was corroborated by an internal investigation conducted by BYU Athletics which found no evidence to support Richardson’s claim, “BYU has completed its investigation into the allegation that racial heckling and slurs took place at the Duke vs. BYU women’s volleyball match on August 26. We reviewed all available video and audio recordings, including security footage and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match, with broadcasting audio removed (to ensure that the noise from the stands could be heard more clearly).”
“We also reached out to more than 50 individuals who attended the event: Duke athletic department personnel and student-athletes, BYU athletic department personnel and student-athletes, event security and management and fans who were in the arena that evening, including many of the fans in the on-court student section.”
They concluded, “From our extensive review, we have not found any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.”
Rachel Richardson via GoDuke.com
Staley was recently asked about her decision to cancel the games and was adamant she has no intention of apologizing until Richardson changes her story.
She said, “Did the young lady come out and say that she apologized for hearing something wrong? Did she come out and say that yet? OK, then that’s her story. That’s what she’s sticking with. Until she comes out and says that then I’ll be the first to apologize. I’ll be the first to say, ‘I’m wrong,’ but that has yet to come out. So, that’s what I’m sticking with.”
“That’s her story, that’s what she’s sticking with…until she comes out and says that, I’ll be the first to apologize.”
Dawn Staley on her decision to cancel the BYU home opener.@wachfox @GamecockWBB pic.twitter.com/YmJ8DZqUma
— amanda (@amanda_1815) September 28, 2022
Staley’s logic is bizarre to say the least. She’s basically claiming that if a liar doesn’t admit they are lying then they couldn’t be lying. It makes no sense. Not only does it not make sense it reflects poorly on Staley own personal character as she clearly refuses to follow the evidence that shows no one uttered racist remarks to Rachel Richardson during the volleyball match.
Staley isn’t alone in this. Jennifer Lynne Williams, the Chief Development Officer of the USA Basketball Foundation cheered Staley on writing on twitter, “Period!! Next question please…y’all better stop playing with Dawn Staley.”
Jennifer Lynne Williams Twitter
What do you make of Staley’s comments?