Basketball team refuses to play without its female members, forfeits season

Sometimes the spirit of girl power is expressed by nine fifth-grade boys saying they'd rather forfeit an entire season's worth of basketball games than kick out their female teammates. It's a beautiful thing.

Until recently, St. John the Apostle Parish School in New Jersey had a co-ed basketball team which consisted of 11 players, nine of them boys, two of them girls, all of whom had been largely playing together since second grade. Rules and regulations of their league stated that after fourth grade the team could no longer be co-ed, so the boys from the team decided to speak up.

After playing 10 games this season with no opposition, the league stepped in and told them they would have to forfeit the games played up until that point and remove the female members of the team if they wanted to continue with the season.

Coaches opted to let the kids decide. When asked if they wanted to continue playing as a team, all 11 team members raised their hand in agreement.

One player told a parent of a chlid on the team that the whole thing "doesn't matter." Nice to see some classic tween ambivalence used for good.

Parents of the players were proud and supportive: Matthew Dohn, father of one of the children, told KTLA “they’re only kids, but they know what’s important.”

Other parents made new jerseys for the team so that they could play scrimmages against themselves. They read "#Unitygames".

It's like the Hunger Games but wonderful and pure.