CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WRIC) — A Virginia youth basketball team got booted from a national tournament because one of their players is a girl.
The Charlottesville Cavaliers say the tournament directors allowed Kymora Johnson to register and told her she was eligible to play, but the entire team was thrown out of the tournament right before the semi-final round.
It was a crushing blow for Kymora, who considers basketball more than just a game.
“I like competing and playing against other people, and challenging myself to get better,” says Kymora.
That’s why the 10-year-old old was excited to travel to Myrtle Beach last weekend with her team, the Charlottesville Cavaliers, to compete in the National Travel Basketball League Championship Tournament.
But the Cavaliers wouldn’t get that chance. They were disqualified heading to the semi-final round because they had a girl on the team.
“So what if we have a girl on the team?,” says Kymora’s mother Jessica Thomas-Johnson. “If she can compete with these boys as she’s done since she was 5-years-old and drop threes and break ankles, then who are you to tell her she can’t play with them?”
This was the third year Kymora and her team competed in that tournament.
But this year was apparently the first time girls weren’t allowed to play with the boys.
Kymora, her mom and her coach say no one told them about the policy change.
However, the National Travel Basketball Association denies that’s the case, saying their rules clearly state girls and boys must play with their own gender in the championship tournament.
By Sunday, word of the team’s disqualification spread and support began to grow.
Kymora’s teammates even wore pink jerseys in silent protest on Sunday.
As for Kymora, she’s just focusing on her game because she has big dreams.
“To go all through high school and college and try to make it to professional,” Johnson adds.
There is a lot of support for Kymora in Charlottesville.
Some community members are organizing a championship party for the team Wednesday night. They say although the kids weren’t the tournament champions, the way Kymora and her teammates handled themselves is the character of a true champion.
