From the High School Sports Are Serious Business Department comes a story about a girls basketball team that no longer has a chance to advance to the state playoffs because they wore illegal uniforms.
California high school Harbor City Narbonne was the top seed and advanced to the City Section Open Divisional finals over View Park High School on Saturday, but the Los Angeles City Section decided on Monday that Narbonne’s uniforms were illegal and in violation of the rules subject to a forfeit. So View Park is in the finals and Narbonne is not.
The City Section released a statement, which sounds very much like something the NFL would say about such an issue except that the NFL would find a way to fine every player on the high school team in some way too.
“Uniform colors may only be a combination of the official school colors,” the City Section statement reads. “Pink is not a school color at Narbonne. Penalties will include probation and forfeiture of contests.”
Narbonne wore white uniforms with pink letters in support of breast cancer awareness, according to Narbonne principal Gerald Kobata.
“This is a huge disappointment for the girls basketball team, a team that worked so hard to achieve success on the court and in the classroom. We were unaware that honoring cancer victims with uniforms was against California Interscholastic Federation rules. I feel badly for the students—especially the seniors—their families and the Narbonne community. Though bound by the decision, I want to make sure this never happens again here.”
That excuse wasn’t flying with the City Section, which had already put Narbonne on watch after the team played an illegal player (who had received two technicals in one game and was supposed to sit out the next game) in the playoffs the prior season.
But it does seem like Narbonne thought it was in the clear here. The Gauchos wore the same uniforms in a previous playoff game, and there was no complaint filed or anything said to Narbonne at the time. After hearing the news of the forfeit, Narbonne’s prior round opponent, University, has asked to play View Park.
Narbonne is naturally appealing the decision.
City Section commissioner John Aguirre had this to say about Narbonne’s uniforms in the LA Times:
“Breast cancer awareness is in October, and there’s a process for people to request color change. If they’re going to blatantly disregard these rules and regulations, they’re going to affect kids.”
Kids are being affected. A high school team that won the game and should have rightfully moved on is now potentially sitting at home.
Rules are rules, and rules are important. If the school had been told it could not wear the uniforms ahead of time and did so anyway, that’s one thing. But kicking a team (with six seniors) out of the playoffs because it wore a uniform with pink on it and didn’t file a waiver seems like an overreaction. Although you couldn’t have high school sports without overreactions.
