Statement Regarding PACWEST Women’s Basketball
On Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26, 2024 the Columbia Bible College (CBC) Bearcats women’s basketball team travelled to Nanaimo, BC to play the Vancouver Island University Mariners for two PACWEST league games. These were physical games, especially Friday night’s game, and as a result CBC female athletes were on the receiving end of several rough plays. After the Friday night game, CBC’s head coach, Taylor Claggett, had a conversation with a representative of the Mariners’ Athletic Department and expressed her concerns for the safety of the female athletes on the CBC women’s basketball team. These concerns included the play of a 6’2″ transgender athlete.
During the Saturday game, a CBC player was assessed a flagrant foul against this VIU player. CBC does not condone flagrant fouls and strives to encourage sportsmanship and respect for all opponents. However, we recognize that, regrettably in the heat of the moment, emotions can rise during a hard contested game. Accusations that CBC’s coaches directed its players to intentionally hurt an opponent are simply untrue. We would point out that the CBC player was not ejected from the game, there was no injury on the play and the VIU player continued to play in the game. We would encourage those interested to view the game in its entirety (view Friday’s game, view Saturday’s game).
After the two games, the Athletics Directors of CBC and VIU had a phone conversation in which it was discussed that each school’s athletics program would bring their concerns regarding the weekend events to the PACWEST Board for further discussion. CBC is looking forward to participating fully in these discussions. The safety of our female student athletes, both on and off the court, is a high priority at CBC. We believe the issue of transgender participation in female college sports is a complex and important discussion. It is an issue that governing sports bodies across the world are wrestling with.
On Wednesday, October 30, 2024, the VIU player posted a video to Instagram that accuses the CBC Bearcats program, the women’s basketball team and head coach, Taylor Claggett of “bigotry” and being “transphobes.” It is the view of CBC that this scripted video does not accurately represent all the events that took place. As a result of the video post, false comments and online harassment have been directed at Taylor Claggett, CBC Bearcat players, along with coaches and other employees. These comments are completely inappropriate and should not happen in college sports. They have created an unsafe environment for our players and employees.
Taylor Claggett was speaking out for the safety of her players like any good coach would do. We stand in support of Taylor Claggett, and all our coaches, in expressing their legitimate concerns for the safety of our student athletes.
