The Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team has been receiving negative attention after a video surfaced of the team on social media over the weekend showing several of the players chanting the n-word while singing along to “Freaky Friday” by Lil Dicky.
The 13-second video appears to feature white team members and was posted on Snapchat under one of the players’ accounts and uploaded to YouTube on Sunday by an unknown party. The clip was recorded on a team bus after a game.
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Head coach John Sung told The Roanoke Times the video was a “teachable moment.”
“This is a teachable moment,” Sung said Monday in a phone interview. “It’s not something that we’re proud of. The team is very apologetic and sorry. There’s nobody of any color that should say it. Period. There’s nobody that should say it.”
Sung explained that there was “no malice involved” in the team’s actions.
“They had just won. They’re singing songs. The first couple songs were Disney songs. … They were celebrating and they were dancing and they were excited,” he said. “They’re good kids that made a bad decision.”
He added that the team is “extremely sorry” for their actions.
“We’re trying to do what’s right. This isn’t something that we sweep under the rug,” Sung said. “The team is extremely sorry. They’re trying to make it right. And I know that we’ll never make it right with anybody, but … this is a moment that defines this program but yet a moment that will help this program be better.”
The coach said that he found out about the video on Sunday. He has since met with his team, as have members of the Virginia Tech athletic administration.
“Following an away match on Saturday, March 24, a member of our squad posted a video to social media of the team singing along to a song that included derogatory lyrics,” Sung said in a statement, via the New York Daily News. “Members of the VT Athletics administration and coaches have met with the full team. We are engaged in conversations within the campus community to share our sincere apology. We have confidence that the team will learn from this mistake and understand that these actions reflect poorly on our program and do not represent the values of our program or the principles of the university.”
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