At five years old, Kymora Johnson wanted to play basketball. Because there were no girls teams in her hometown of Charlottesville, Va., her mother, Jessica Thomas-Johnson, signed her up for the Charlottesville Cavaliers, an all-boys team. Kymora has played for the Cavs for the past five years without incident—until last weekend when the team was disqualified during the finals of the National Travel Basketball Association’s annual tournament because they had a girl player.
Petula Dvorak at the Washington Post writes:
Another team was also disqualified after officials realized a girl was on the team. Both of these girls had checked in at the beginning of the tournament. They had to present their birth certificates. They had to look the officials in the eyes.
“Kymora had her hair down. She had a headband on. She had hot pink nail polish on her nails,” Thomas-Johnson said. “They knew she was a girl.”
John Whitley, NTBA president, told the Daily Progress in Charlottesville that the association made its new, no-girl rule clear. And he said tournament officials didn’t make an issue with Kymora because they only saw her on the bench, even though she played and scored a few points.
Kymora—ever the team player—asked officials to disqualify her personally and allow the Cavs to play without her. Her request was denied.
“I wanted my team to be able to make the championships, to be able to play,” she tells Dvorak.