ALBION, Mich. (WXYZ) — Student-athletes at Albion College, a school in mid-Michigan about 90 miles away from Detroit, sat out of today's men's basketball game against Trine after a coach used a racial slur in practice.
According to a player that participated in the protest, 10 of the 16 varsity players sat out of the game. The player, who has asked to remain anonymous, also said that a JV player was brought up for the game.
"Coach May isn’t racist," the player said to 7 Action News via Twitter DMs. "He made a mistake that hurt the players a lot. We asked for space and the school dismissed us."
A spokesperson for the college sent a statement to 7 Action News, regarding the incident at practice and Saturday's protest.
"Albion College recently addressed an internal issue involving the men's basketball team that stemmed from a practice session where our coach disciplined a student-athlete for using a racial epithet," said Mary Ann Sabo. "When players questioned the coach about this matter after practice, the coach repeated what the student had said when he explained the discipline taken."
Albion confirmed to 7 Action News that the coach has since apologized to the team. They say the coach has sat out several games and is undergoing sensitivity training.
"We respect the decisions of those student-athletes who have decided to sit out today’s game," Sabo said in the statement. "We hope to continue the healing process through ongoing dialogue with these student-athletes."
Albion lost today's game to Trine, 91-62.
Below is the text from a Google Doc sent from the player to 7 Action News late Saturday evening:
"We have made the collective decision as a team to give each player the option to sit out the game on Saturday, January 7th, against Trine University. As a result, ten of the sixteen varsity players will not be playing on Saturday. This was a difficult decision to make since we all love the game of basketball and look forward to every chance that we get to play. That being said, we are sitting out not only because of Coach May’s actions, but because of how the College has handled this whole situation.
On Wednesday, January 4th, our team was met with a surprise 10 AM meeting with President Calvaruso and Dean Wright to discuss Coach May’s actions and what to do moving forward. We felt that this meeting was extremely inappropriate to have since it was a game day and we should only be focused on the game. During this two hour meeting, the Dean and the President proceeded to pressure us into meeting with our coach face to face that day even though we repeatedly expressed our wish to meet with him on Sunday. We already had a plan to meet with Coach May on Sunday with Kelly Finn, the Assistant Dean, about our wish to have him suspended for the remainder of the season. She had multiple pages of notes from us to share with Coach May from a previous meeting we had with her. Dean Wright and President Calvaruso repeatedly ignored our wishes and the ways that we wanted to go about this and pushed their own agendas on to us. They talked us down to the point where we felt that the only way we could end the meeting was to hear from Coach May, who they had already asked to be in the building. We heard from Coach May, where he apologized again for his words, and the meeting was adjourned. We then had to go play a game eight hours later with this conversation at the top of our minds.
The next day, we were informed by our coach that he was told that Coach May would resume coaching us on Monday and there was nothing we could do about it. We were also told that he would be on the bench with us during our game on Saturday. The game on Saturday is an important day for the college. There are high school games being held in the gym that day coached by Albion alumni. They are honoring a former coach and there are a lot of alumni coming back. The school cares more about looking good on Saturday than they care about their athletes.
Majority of similar cases like this across the country were handled more professionally and resulted in suspension or dismissal of the individual that made the comment. Albion College has mishandled this situation from the very start. They took advantage of the incident occurring over break and having nobody here on campus. They have been trying to hide what happened and sweep it under the rug. There has not been an official statement released by the College about what happened and it has been nine days since the event at the time of this writing. The College tried to guilt trip us into giving up our cause and just accepting what they want. We heard of an ultimatum given by President Calvaruso that we take Coach May back as our coach or we won’t have a season. They are trying to make us choose between basketball and what we believe in and what we feel is right. We have been told that Coach May is not going anywhere by the College and the school has made it clear that they care more about money and public appearance more than its student athletes.
The student handbook under policies and expectations states that “The college prohibits any acts of intimidation, or any behaviors that demean, slur, or stereotype an individual or group on the basis of race, color, and ethnicity. These include oral and written remarks, symbolic speech, illustrations, innuendos, and electronic messages or postings”. The actions that day from Dean Wright and President Calvaruso made us feel unimportant and unvalued. They belittled and tried to manipulate us. Their job is to listen to students and support them, and they have failed in those aspects. They are taking advantage of everyone being on break and no one really knowing about what happened. They are trying to cover up this situation and sweep it under the rug as a way to make the school look good on Saturday. Our feelings and requests have not been taken seriously by the College during this process and we feel that we have not been heard. We feel that the only option we have left to be heard is to not participate in the game on Saturday against Trine University not only as a protest to Coach May’s words, but to the college’s response to this situation."
