Women’s March Madness Team Experiences Racial Hate While in Idaho

It's been an interesting and rather embarrassing week for diversity in Idaho as a head women's basketball coach came out during a national press conference to share that her team experienced racial hate crimes during their time in Spokane, Washington.

The information was shared on the heels of a peculiar post on X (the app, formerly known as Twitter), by the Governor of the State of Idaho.

In the message posted above by Governor Brad Little, he exclaims that "diversity statements" are "banned" across state government-- but perhaps it's diversity that Idahoans need to embrace a little bit more? That's certainly the case for some who this weekend acted in an unacceptable way. According to the head coach of the University of Utah's women's basketball team--her players needed to be moved out of their hotel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, during the March Madness tournament which was taking place 30-minutes away in Spokane, Washington. Gonzaga University, a private, Jesuit university, was the tournament's host this year in Spokane and quickly assisted the University of Utah in finding new accommodations. The Catholic university released their statement on the situation, below:      

So what exactly happened? More information is coming out as the day goes on, as covered by The Spokesman Review's Alex Duggan.

Obviously, this behavior is wildly unacceptable and here in Idaho we can't stand to allow this to happen.

During a press conference this afternoon with the Mayor of Coeur d'Alene, officials shared that police are actively looking for surveillance video and any other leads on the incident.  According to the Mayor, the UC-Irvine basketball team was also on he receiving end of the racial slurs.

Watch the presser and coverage, below: