Arriving in Coeur d’Alene for the NCAA tournament, the Utah women’s basketball team was met with less than a warm welcome. With tournament games held in Spokane, the team was initially lodged in Coeur d’Alene due to hotels being booked out.
After losing to Gonzaga in the second round of the tournament on Monday, Head Coach Lynne Roberts said the team experienced several instances of racial hate crimes.
“Our team hotel was in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which is not very close,” Roberts said. “It’s 35-40 minutes, so that was a little strange, but whatever. We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes towards our program and it was incredibly upsetting for all of us.”
While walking from the hotel to a restaurant, a truck with a Confederate flag reportedly drove up to the team. The driver proceeded to direct racist language, including a racial slur, towards the team.
Utah Athletics Director Mark Harlan, Deputy Athletics Director Charmelle Green and Roberts issued a statement on the incident.
“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,” he wrote in the statement.
Statement from Athletics Director Mark Harlan, Deputy A.D. Charmelle Green and Women’s Basketball Head Coach Lynne Roberts. pic.twitter.com/GJbvPs9dvm
— Utah Athletics (@utahathletics) March 26, 2024
The NCAA and Gonzaga quickly worked to move the team into a new hotel after their first night in Coeur d’Alene. According to the Associated Press, Gonzaga stated that the school is “frustrated and deeply saddened.”
The NCAA said they “immediately worked” with both schools to “provide increased security for the team” until they could be moved to a new hotel.
“The NCAA and Gonzaga worked to get us a new hotel and we appreciate that,” Roberts said. “ … This should be a positive for everyone involved. This should be a joyous time for our program — to have a kind of black eye on the experience is unfortunate.”
City officials also offered their apologies in a press conference on Tuesday morning:
“On behalf of the city of Coeur d’Alene and all of its communities, I strongly condemn the appalling treatment of the female college athletes who were visiting,” Jim Hammond, mayor of Coeur d’Alene said. “We express regret and true sorrow that your student-athletes were treated with such disdainful treatment,” he continued. “To the young women who endured racial slurs while visiting, I offer my most sincere apology.”
Lee White, chief of Coeur d’Alene police, gave a small update on the investigation. As it is still ongoing, not all details were reported. Hammond added that he reached out to the President’s Office at the University of Utah but has not heard back.
Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations confirmed Utah deputy athletic director Green’s story. Stewart added that the driver from the first incident returned a second time, “reinforced by others.”
Despite moving hotels, there is some question as to why Utah was housed in Coeur d’Alene in the first place. South Dakota State and UC Irvine also stayed in Coeur d’Alene. UC Irvine said they were not involved in the incident, but requested to move after it occurred.
“We should not have been there,” Harlan told KSL. “I do appreciate the NCAA and Gonzaga moving us from that situation, but we should never have been there in the first place. So a lot of folks need to get home and heal from the whole matter.”
