Youth basketball team forfeits season to keep its 2 female teammates
A New Jersey co-ed basketball team may have forfeited its season, but it has won the gender equality battle on the court.
The St. John’s CYO basketball team is comprised of fifth-graders — nine boys and two girls, to be exact. Four years ago, the boys’ team became co-ed after there wasn’t enough interest by girls to have a team of their own. All was well until the team was recently notified it had been playing “illegally” with female players. According to NJ.com, the team was given an ultimatum: play without the girls and potentially advance to the playoffs or give up the rest of the season.
“One parent told me it’s my decision (whether the girls play), but I said no way, I’m not making this decision for 11 10-year-olds,” St. John’s coach Rob Martel said.
The team was asked to take a vote, which was captured on video.
In a unanimous vote, the kids all agreed that if they couldn’t play together as a team, they wouldn’t play at all. They then began to chant “Unity!”
“These kids are doing the right thing,” remarked parent Denise Laskody. “We don’t have to tell them what to do. They just know. It’s amazing.”
“It has a big impact on me because it shows that they care,” Kayla Martel, one of the female players, said of her teammates. “I’m part of them just as they’re part of me and they don’t want to break that bond just like I don’t want to break that bond. I think the rules are ridiculous.”
