The Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League released two players on Thursday due to their “inappropriate racial comments and actions” toward a teammate, the team announced.
“Effective immediately, the two players are no longer on the T-Birds roster,” a team statement read in part. “The two players removed from the roster will continue their education and personal growth in this area. We will use this incident to further emphasize that comments of this nature will not be tolerated and further emphasis will be placed on educational programming in this area.”
A Seattle Times report mentioned that the incident involved Seattle’s lone Black player, a 17-year-old who alleged he was called a racial slur and had a banana waved in front of him.
The two players who’ve been released — a 17-year-old from Alberta and an 18-year-old from British Columbia — are reportedly awaiting information about when they can return to Canada.
None of the players were named in the Times‘ report due to the fact that two of three are minors.
“I am very disappointed with what happened, but I appreciate and respect the way my organization has handled this situation,” the victim said to the Times via text message. “That’s all I am going to say, and now I just want to focus on our season at hand.”
On March 17, two days prior to the Thunderbirds’ season opener, general manager Bil La Forge learned of the incident. He met with the two accused players the next morning and sent them away from the team pending an investigation.
Though the accused players could be brought back next season, the Times reported that that won’t happen. Seattle could opt to trade the players elsewhere, though.