A feud against a transsexual competitor that resulted in lost and sanctions did not prevent Columbia Bible College (CBC) from going all the way this year.

CBC won the Canadian Collegial Athletic Association Women’s Basketball National Championship on Saturday night and beat St. Mary’s University 77-70 to win the title for the first time in program history.

For CBC, Elissa Vreugdenhil won the CCAA Championship Tournament MVP and put 19 points with 12 rebounds in the victory. Grace Park scored 20 points with six rebounds and four assists demanding the player of the game honors, while Madeline Beerwald scored 20 points with eight rebounds.

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The victory is not only the first national championship in the CBC story, but also marked a dramatic turn from just two years ago as the program suffered a 54-match losing series from 2018 to 2023. The program had not even won a conference game before this season.

But the team also achieved all this in the shadow of accusations related to the treatment of a trans athlete. Main coach Taylor Claggett was suspended and the team lost its right to host the conference tournament after allegations of abuse against a trans athlete at Vancouver Island University (VIU) in October.

The feud started during a 25th of October match between the two teams that Viu won 69-56 after Trans Player Harriette Mackenzie scored a game-high 19 points. Five days after this game, the Trans released an Instagram video that Claggett “cornered one of our athletic staff and went on a tirade on how I shouldn’t be allowed to play.”

It was also claimed that Mackenzie was deliberately buried to the ground by a CBC player. In response, Claggett published his own statement on Instagram and claimed that Mackenzie’s statement was inaccurate.

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“My intention has nothing to do with a particular athlete, but instead the security of female athletes in their sport,” wrote claggett.

VIU then filed a formal complaint with Pacwest, which received an investigation. When the two teams were scheduled to play again on the 10th and 11th of January, VIU refused.

“Intimidation, harassment and discrimination have no place in athletics,” VIU said in a statement to Pakinomist Digital in January about the decision not to play. “VIU is in full support from our student athletes and confirms the right of all athletes to compete in an environment that prioritizes their safety and well-being.”

VIU requested that the two lost do not count as losses on the team’s record, which was awarded by Pacwest.

CBC delivered a statement to Pakinomist Digital that weekend about “accusations that CBC, its coach, players and fans are a security threat is simply untrue and wrongly informed.”

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Days later, CBC players condemned Mackenzie in a letter obtained by Pakinomist Digital.

CBC players accused Mackenzie of “personal attacks”, “defamatory comments” and even “comments that encourage violence” against their coach.

“Videos and letters submitted by members of the ViU -Kvinde’s basketball team in the past three months have directly violated several rules listed in Article 17.2 of the manual. Various positions have included ‘personal attack’, ‘defamatory comments,’ ‘lack of respect against Pacwest’ and led to ‘Comments that encourage violence and/or hatred’ directed to our Coach, ‘ the letter.

“Any and all accusations of VIU players about our team and coach should have been directly communicated to Pacwest officials alone, they should not have been publicly uploaded to social media.”

Pacwest eventually sits with ViU and Mackenzie. It suspended claggett in early February and CBC lost its right to host the Pacwest Championships.

CBC managed to fight all the way back to reach the Pacwest title game, which happened to be against ViU and Mackenzie, on March 1st. Mackenzie scored 21 points in this game to lead VIU to a 69-59 win and was then awarded conference tournament MVP in a ceremony after the game.

But VIU’s National Championship hip was quickly stabbed after a loss to Mohawk College in the first round Wednesday. Mackenzie’s Instagram account, the platform that originally shared the accusations against the claggett and CBC, turned out to have been deleted the same day.

Meanwhile, CBC has now taken a race all the way to a historic championship despite the frequent distractions this season.