Boys’ basketball team disqualified from tournament because of girl player

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A boys’ basketball team has been disqualified from competing in a national tournament this week after it was determined the team had broken tournament rules by allowing a girl to play.

Ten-year-old Kymora Johnson and coach Joe Mallory, of the Charlottesville Cavaliers, allege they were stripped of their ability to advance to the NTBA Championship semi-finals by the National Travel Basketball Association — the sponsors of the tournament — only moments after winning their first round game.

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The NTBA asserts that it does not allow mixed-gender teams to compete at the national level, a policy it says is explicitly stated on the association’s website. Additionally, NTBA officials say the head coach was notified that girls cannot play on a boys’ team during the championship game — a point Coach Mallory insists is not true.

The Charlottesville Cavaliers are adamant that the gender eligibility requirements were not clear on the NTBA’s website and say that no one from the NTBA communicated to them before the tournament that Kymora could not play.

“I said, ‘You checked us in. We went through the whole process,’” Mallory explained to WSOC-TV.  “They already knew that she was a female from the check-in.” Mallory also contends the the 11 other kids on the team should not have been robbed of their chance to compete based on the technicality, adding that his request to allow the team to continue in the tournament without Kymora was denied.

“Kymora only played about five minutes total in all five games and only scored three points,” he said. “Yes, it’s a girl issue but it’s a team. We’re a family. It’s not just one person that made that team.”