UNC Basketball: Former coach Sylvia Hatchell charged with misdemeanor
Former UNC basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell charged with misdemeanor in death of elderly woman
Former University of North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell has been charged with a misdemeanor for her involvement in the death of an elderly woman in Durham, North Carolina on Monday.
Following an investigation, Durham police stated that Hatchell had been cited with a misdemeanor death by vehicle and unsafe movement violation after she struck 89-year-old Betty Colb in a parking lot near an O2 Fitness Center in Durham. Colb’s head fatally struck the ground, and she died on Wednesday. Investigators determined that Hatchell was not impaired at the time of the accident, and speed did not play a part in the collision.
Hatchell coached at North Carolina from 1986 to 2019 before giving her resignation amid a review of the women’s basketball program last season. The investigation found that the 67-year-old coach made racially insensitive comments to her players. Complaints from players and members of the medical staff also surfaced, claiming that Hatchell put pressure on her team and medical staff to release injured players before they were ready to play.
Before her abrupt departure from the school last year, Hatchell compiled a record of 751 wins and 325 losses in 33 years. She won a national title in 1994, and was voted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2013.
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