After Atalanta

 Last weekend, BYU fans directed racial slurs against several Black women on the Duke volleyball team. It seems that Rachel Richardson experienced the brunt of it including a threat from a white man in which she was told to "watch her back" on her way to the bus. She is the athlete who has spoken up about the violence.  BYU responded late and poorly, but this was an all-around failure by all coaches and officials.  It has been pointed out t hat BYU's response reflects their ignorance. Others have thrown up their hands in a "it's BYU--what do you expect?" kind of way.  ALL institutions should already be doing this work. That Heather Olmstead, BYU coach, said that after talking to Richardson (and others) that she now "understand(s) areas where we can do better" is offensive. Stop asking Black people to educate you about racism. AND ALSO how do you not understand that yelling racial slurs is a problem? This is not an area to be worked on--this is an ...

It is not news to most that BYU athletic teams (or even, I suppose, the debating team, if they have one) do not compete on Sundays for religious reasons. It is not especially difficult to control when scheduling regular season contests. Post-season can be a little more tricky. But the NCAA does not allow scheduling that would infringe on a school's religious practices. But the BYU women's rugby team is a club sport (not governed by NCAA rules) and the women have made it to the national championships which are being held this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. By the time the scheduling issue was realized plane tickets had been purchased by BYU and other teams and it was too late. So if the BYU women win on Saturday, they cannot play on Sunday . Actually they are not officially affiliated with the school (not sure how that works) so they can play, but being practicing Mormons, they will choose not to. My reaction to this story is a mix of "live and let live" and "scr...

...but you can't be gay. That is what is being hinted at by Brigham Young University athletic director Tom Holmoe. In an article* about the lack of female coaches in intercollegiate athletics, writer Rhiannon Potkey, looks at the situation in Utah. University of Utah has ten women's teams; only three are coached by women--a stat that falls below the national average. AD Chris Hill said that he thinks it is important to get women into head coaching positions but not as important as finding a "qualified candidate...regardless of gender" according to the article. Hill said: ""We owe it to our student-athletes to find the best coach available for them. We have that in mind whenever a position opens in coaching or administration. Sometimes the pool of women candidates we get just isn't that big or doesn't include women who are as qualified as some men." There is no interrogation of this hackneyed excuse about "most qualified" candidate, or ...