Ray Chadwick is defending his daughter, U.S. soccer player Sydney Leroux, after her celebration in a 3-0 win over Canada on Sunday, June 2, sparked racial abuse and personal attacks.
KTW file photo
(Posted with Permission of Kamloops This Week)
Ray Chadwick is being forced to watch from the sidelines in pain as his daughter deals with racial persecution and personal attacks.
"She called me in tears that night, she called me in tears yesterday and I just talked to her this morning and she's better," Chadwick, head coach of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack baseball team, said on Tuesday, June 4.
Chadwick's daughter is Sydney Leroux, a 23-year-old Vancouver-born soccer player with dual citizenship who chose to play for the U.S. national team.
Leroux scored the third goal in the Americans' 3-0 triumph over Canada in front of a raucous, capacity crowd at BMO Field in Toronto on Sunday, June 2.
She celebrated by popping out the U.S. crest on her jersey and putting a finger to her mouth to silence the crowd.
The cheeky gestures were greeted with outrage from fans and media outlets across the country.
She explained her actions on Twitter the following morning.
“When you chant racial slurs, taunt me and talk about my family don’t be mad when I shush you and show pride in what I represent. #america,”
Leroux tweeted.
U.S. Soccer later clarified, noting the racial slurs occurred during the 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver, not at BMO field on Sunday.
The governing body's statement said Leroux has endured abuse both verbally and on social media since choosing the Stars and Stripes over the Maple Leaf in 2008 and, since the Sunday match, "she has received a significant number of tweets that contained racial slurs."
Chadwick, who lives in Kamloops and coaches the junior Sun Devils in the summer, told KTW it's one thing for him to be on the receiving end of racial abuse, but it's much tougher to watch his daughter under fire.
"I've dealt with it here," said Chadwick, who was born in Durham, North Carolina and played one Major League Baseball season with the California Angels.
"I had an issue where umpires wouldn't even ump us for a year. We'll leave it like that. It's done. They're umpiring us again.
"It's tough for it to be my kid. I didn't go to the game in Toronto because I can't sit in the stands and listen."
Chadwick defended the way Leroux celebrated after the goal.
"It's a lot of pent-up frustration from when they [the U.S. team] were down here and some of the things that were said and the signs she saw," he said.
"She didn't score when she played [in Vancouver]. She gets tweets all the time of why she's not playing for Canada and they're booing her every time she touches the ball and then she scores and says, 'There you go. Quiet.'"
