LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WSMV) – Every year, more than 2,000 girls’ basketball teams converge on Louisville for the annual Run 4 The Roses tournament, which attracts college recruiters and coaches.
Championship Sunday ended not with celebrations, but rather with people running for the exits, after Louisville Police say an unfounded threat prompted an evacuation.
Some Middle Tennessee families were at the Kentucky Expo Center for the tournament and were among those who ran for safety.
“In the middle of my game, I looked over a bunch of people running. Then I looked at my coach, and he’s saying, ‘Let’s go,’” Molly King told sister station WAVE. “So, we all just run and I guess just try to get out as fast as you can.”
Molly King and her family were in Louisville for the tournament. Molly plays for the Brentwood-based team B-Wright.
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“Then people started running and the kids started running, and then we got over here and there was a lady from Colorado that was showing cattle, showing cattle, and she put 10 of us in her car and said, there’s a bunch of cowboys in this parking lot,” Molly’s mother Sarah said.
Event organizers said on social media that due to the threat, the championship games, being played or had not yet played, would be held on Monday.
In addition to the scheduling change, bag checks and metal detector wands will be at each entrance for spectators and teams as they enter.
“Some of my teammates’ parents were like, have you seen Addie or Lily, or stuff like that? And just was like, I just was worried for my teammates, my teammates’ parents and stuff,” Molly said.
The incident has left parents concerned about security measures at the tournament.
“It was shocking that they were not checking bags,” Sarah King said. “It makes me so sad that our kids think that this is normal. It’s not the way American children should be growing up.”
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