NCHSAA blocking Myers Park Girls Basketball Team from playing in NYC

The Story

I don’t know anything about sports but I do know this: All eyes (of students and parents of students at Myers Park High School) were on the girls’ basketball team this weekend as they beat Southeast Raleigh on Saturday to win the State Championship (52-47) for the second straight year.

The Myers Park Mustangs are currently ranked 4th in the nation by USA Today and have earned a coveted invitation to play in the DICK’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals at Madison Square Garden (NYC) this April (this national championship game is not official).

The Catch?

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association bars any practices or games after the end of the season on March 14. (For those just joining us, April comes after March 14.)

Myers Park High School administrators have already made a formal request for permission to lift the ban and participate in Nationals, but it was promptly denied by NCHSAA, an organization (it would appear) that tolerates basically nothing. Parents of Mustang players followed that up with a press release (parents write press releases??) demanding an immediate hearing with NCHSAA to overturn the ruling.

The NCHSAA has never (ever, ever, ever) made an exception to this rule (not even for the Olympic Boys’ Team in 2013).

What’s Next?

The Mustangs have made another formal request and the NCHSAA’s executive committee will let them know their ruling by 5pm on Tuesday evening.

Quotes

“Four states have done it. Florida has let people go for the last four or five years. Utah did it last year. Washington state did it and now Georgia Wheeler is getting to go. This is coming. Whether North Carolina decides to get on the bandwagon this year, it’s coming. We always have done it for track. They go as individuals or the AAU team, but not their high school.” –  Mustangs Coach Barbara Nelson.

“This would be a great educational opportunity to take kids who have never been (to New York) and may never get there, to see the Statue of Liberty in person instead of in a picture; to stand on top of the Empire State Building; or to go to Ground Zero. Some of these kids weren’t born when 9-11 happened and for those kids to have that opportunity, well, it will be a shame if that’s withheld from them.” –  Barbara.

C5’s Take

• Let the kids play! They’re good at basketball. They earned an expense-paid trip to New York City because they’re good at basketball. The act of them being good at basketball in a national tournament draws positive press back to this lovely city full of those of us here who are not even good at basketball at all but dig positive press.
• At the same time… let the kids fight their own battle. I would have been WAY more impressed by the press release if it had been written by the girls–thoughtfully pointing out what they’ll gain from the experience and respectfully but firmly demanding the opportunity to kick some major butt on the court.

Photos: David T. Foster, III / Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 12:56 AM with the headline "NCHSAA blocking Myers Park Girls Basketball Team from playing in NYC."