WHL's Red Deer Rebels name Kai Uchacz captain despite racist past
The WHL's Rebels announced their leadership group on Friday, including naming Uchacz captain despite prior discipline due to a racist taunt.
Eyebrows were raised across the hockey world Friday when the Red Deer Rebels announced their leadership group for the 2023-24 season.
Among the players given letters, the Rebels’ new captain, Kai Uchacz, was one of two players removed from the Seattle Thunderbirds roster ahead of the 2020-21 season due to racially motivated bullying of the team's lone Black player, Mekai Sanders. Uchacz and the other player reportedly taunted Sanders horribly, calling him a racial slur and waving a banana in front of him, according to the Seattle Times.
After sitting out an entire season, Uchacz was traded to Red Deer and the WHL permitted him to return for the 2021-22 season.
“Uchacz was required to undergo further training and education on anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and successfully completed the WHL Diversity Coaching Program conducted by Kamau Consulting Group and Shades of Humanity Consulting in June 2021,” the league said in a release.
Sanders’ agent, Scott Norton, released a statement in the aftermath of the ruling and expressed his disappointment that no supplemental discipline was handed down.
“We are very disappointed that the Western Hockey League has not issued a statement or any disciplinary actions following the racially motivated situation which occurred on the Seattle Thunderbirds during the 2020/21 season,” Norton said in a statement released on X.
Uchacz, 20, went undrafted in each of the three drafts he was eligible for. NHL Central Scouting ranked the Alberta native 130th in their mid-term rankings for the 2023 draft.
This incident marks the latest in a string of racist controversies the WHL has found itself embroiled in of late. The Lethbridge Hurricanes hired disgraced ex-NHL coach Bill Peters to run their bench last month, despite Peters losing his job with the Calgary Flames in 2019 after Akim Aliu, a former player of his with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, revealed that Peters directed racial profanities at him.
Additionally, the WHL suspended Wenatchee Wild coach Kevin Constantine indefinitely earlier this week for violating league relations and policies. According to Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News, the allegation against Constantine stems from a racial slur.
