Common sense went out the window in the Los Angeles city high school championship tournament last week when Narbonne High girls’ team opted to change out of its traditional green and gold uniforms, wearing white uniforms with green trim but pink numbers to raise awareness of breast cancer.
. Regional officials came dangerously close to taking away Narbonne’s 57-52 victory over View Park in the city semi-finals because they wore the wrong color uniforms without permission. Under Article 1305 of the rule book, it states uniform colors must be a combination of the official school colors.
Coach Victoria Sanders told the Torrance, Calif. Daily Breeze her team was taking part in “Play 4Kay” campaign to raise awareness for the Kay Yow Cancer fund. Yow, a Hall of Fame coach from NC State, died of breast cancer in 2009. The fund has raised $4.18 million toward women’s cancer research.
We all know how this played with social media and the national news media, including the New York Times, who expressed deserved outrage and righteous indignation, eventually forcing the committee to amend the intital embarrassing bad ruling.
As a punishment Sanders will be suspended for the remainder of the season and Narboone will not be permitted to hold any home playoff games in 2016. Anthony Hilliard, the boys coach, will coach the girls for the rest of the playoffs.
Narbonne has accepted the penalty but it should have never come to this. Local politicians and activists should be all over John Aguirre, the commissioner of the L.A. City Section, for this but Narbonne, from the Harbor City neighborhhood, has been on the organization’s radar ever since last year when the school reportedly used a player who had received two technical fouls and should have been eligible.
Aguirre said three volleyball teams teams had forfeited matches over a uniform statement.
Give me a break. When honoring cancer victims becomes a criminal offense, there is something terribly wrong with the system.
