Howard women’s lacrosse coach Karen Healy-Silcott said the Bison endured racist and misogynistic comments from fans during a recent game at Presbyterian College.
“It was vulgar‚ very vulgar — threatening,” Healy-Silcott told Inside Lacrosse.
Healy-Silcott described that the comments directed at the team came from “pickup trucks full of white boys” watching the game from just outside the stadium at Presbyterian College last Friday.
“… saying “F*** Howard, you’re not welcome here, we don’t want you here, go home,” Healy-Silcott said. “They were shouting out out my kids by name, they were saying ‘F*** you, s*** my d***, you p****-a** bitch.”
“It is the worst experience I’ve ever had with this type of thing at any game in my entire career,” she said.
My wife had her first game as the Head Coach of @HowardU yesterday at Presbyterian @presbycollege They were greeted by a bunch of boys hurling obscene and threatening insults. This is the life of black female athletes. Wish I was there, thankfully my wife can take care of herself
— brian t silcott (@btsilcott) February 12, 2022
In a statement, Presbyterian College said the school would conduct an investigation into the incident. “We must hold ourselves accountable and do better as a community to ensure all visitors to our campus are treated with dignity and respect.”
The incident even caught the attention of USA Lacrosse CEO Marc Riccio, who called what transpired “infuriating” and “saddening to think there is still much work to be done” in race relations.
“At a time when we’re recognizing the amazing contributions of the Black community, it is saddening to think there is still much work to be done,” Riccio said.
Eric Clakeley, Presbyterian’s head coach, apologized to Howard on Twitter, saying “we deeply regret the experience they had on our campus.”
