A Catholic NCAA Division I school in Brooklyn, New York, is facing a mass exodus from its men's basketball team after a decision to hire a white man as head coach over the black man who had assumed duties on an interim basis last fall.
On Wednesday, the Manhattan College Jaspers announced that John Gallagher, 45, had been named the new men's basketball head coach. The Jaspers' former coach, Steve Masiello, was fired last October after 11 seasons with the program, leaving the team in a bit of a lurch with its first game just weeks away. Fortunately, assistant coach RaShawn Stores, a Manhattan alumnus who once played for Masiello, was ready to step into the head coaching vacancy on an interim basis.
Despite the chaos of Masiello's unexpected exit and the transfer of three key players just days later, Stores managed to lead the Jaspers to a respectable season. They finished 10-10 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the best conference record they had had in eight years.
After Marist defeated Manhattan in the opening round of the MAAC tournament earlier this month, ending the Jaspers' 2022-2023 season, many players and alumni hoped that Stores would be named the permanent head coach. Players campaigned to "remove the interim tag" from Stores' title, but that never happened.