By Jennipher Vasquez
The Riverside City College women’s basketball team and head coach Alicia Berber protested on campus stating that they were not given uniforms or transportation to their scheduled game.
The team was supposed to play Porterville College in Santa Ana on Nov. 30 at 4 p.m. The protest began shortly before 2 p.m. on game day.
“I requested it and everything,” Berber said. “I have an ongoing pending lawsuit right now and they want to fight me but they’re hurting the student athletes.”
She said that the athletic director, equipment manager and vice president FeRita Carter are in charge of handling uniforms and transportation.
Athletic director Cliff Dochterman disputed the claims. He said that Berber was notified in writing prior to game day to pick up the uniforms in the equipment room and was reminded the morning of Nov. 30.
“The equipment manager has been there since 5:30 this morning with three sets of uniforms waiting for coach Berber and or her designee to come pick up the uniforms,” Dochterman said. “Any word contrary to that is just not true.”
The athletic director also said that the keys for the transportation vans have not been picked up either and have been available for two days.
Dochterman said that the vans are the same ones the men’s basketball team uses, however, he claimed that Berber refused the vans.
“The coach refused to go with vans and kept saying ‘no’ hoping to force us to rent buses that we don’t have money for,” Dochterman said. “The transportation has been available to her but she refused to take advantage of that.”
He said the campus administration is aware of the issue which has been ongoing for several months.
According to the athletic director, teams with less than 25 players are required to use vans, anything over that number uses a bus for transportation.
Many of the women in protest said that they were being treated unfairly compared to the men’s teams.
“We just want to play ball,” the team shouted. “They denied transportation to our destination.”
Berber said that the players are being treated poorly due to the ongoing lawsuit and that the women have filed a harassment claim for comments made to them by the equipment manager and Dochterman.
“We’re in this together now,” Berber said.
This story is developing.
