Coaches 4 Change helping college basketball promote awareness to racial inequality

Siena’s Carmen Maciariello started Coaches 4 Change this summer with aim to increase awareness to racial inequality and social injustice. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Regardless of which side of the aisle one’s political ideologies lean toward, the overwhelming consensus among the majority of the United States over the past three months is that the systemic issues surrounding inherent racism and social injustice need to be addressed, if not remedied. And across the college basketball landscape, the call to action for players and coaches to use their respective platforms to initiate a heightened awareness to the actions that transcend the hardwood has never been more profound or heard more loudly than it has this year in the wake of the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, among the far too many victims of senseless violence.

Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello was one of the first to use his standing to call attention to these tragedies, and started Coaches 4 Change — an organization dedicated to promoting the need to overcome the systemic racism prevalent across the country — shortly after Floyd died in police custody in late May.

“Obviously, everyone was horrified by the murder of George Floyd,” Maciariello said when describing the birth of Coaches 4 Change and its goals. “I reached out to a couple of friends in the business, and there were so many Zoom calls going on during the pandemic. I had spoken to a bunch of different coaches about what it was like to be a first-time head coach, so I got to build some relationships with some different people and I started reaching out to friends in the business, asking them, ‘Hey, how are you handling this? What are you guys doing? Obviously, this isn’t right, we need to do something.’”

“It started as just a Zoom call with about 20 of us, and then it just started to grow organically. Coaches 4 Change basically stands for helping educate our student-athletes and our coaches in college basketball, and in our universities, on systemic racism, social injustices, and the power of voting. We’ve had initiatives to get all of our basketball teams registered to vote and bring that to our athletic departments to get all of our student-athletes, and then bring that to our campuses to get all our campuses registered to vote.”

Coaches 4 Change carries a four-word mission statement: Engage. Educate. Empower. Evolve. But the organization, which now counts nearly 40 coaches nationwide among its ambassadors, seeks to do much more, and interact at all levels.

“We use it as a chance to also have conversations about different things you’re doing with your team and how you’re handling this,” Maciariello revealed. “There’s a mental health piece to the pandemic and more awareness to racism and social injustices, so how are we helping our young men and women that now have these wounds reopened from things that they may have gone through as a younger adult?”

“We just wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible we could to support one another. We have women’s basketball coaches, we have strength coaches, we have men’s coaches, head coaches, assistant coaches, support staff, graduate assistants. It’s a free organization, and it’s just basically about helping educate everyone and getting everyone on the same page to realize that it needs to be done with as much energy and vigor as we try to game plan to beat an opponent.”

Click here for more information on Coaches 4 Change, including how to donate and become a member.