An all-girls flag football team at Irvington High School in New Jersey was recently disqualified from their season despite winning a state championship.
Now, their coach is speaking out after speculating that his team is being targeted and sabotaged.
Was the all-girls flag football team fairly disqualified? Or is this a result of discrimination? The Shade Room’s Justin Carter is getting to the bottom of things on ‘TSR Investigates.’
Stay Connected
Subscribe to updates from The Shade Room
Here’s Why The Team’s Coach Believes His Team Is Being Sabotaged
According to Carter, coach Kyle Steele began preparing his team for the upcoming flag football season in April. However, Steele noticed something was “off” when coaches from opposing teams started postponing their matches.
“Our first game was supposed to be on April 4 [but] we didn’t play until I believe, like, April 17 — that was after like four cancellations,” Steele explained, noting the unusual pattern. “It felt like teams didn’t want to play us because they didn’t want their girls to lose badly to us.”
Carter adds that skipping the Irvington team allowed more junior squads to gain more experience and left Steele’s team “stagnant.”
“We had got to the point where we didn’t even get excited no more when we were saying there was gonna be a game,” Steele recalled. “Even that psyche started messing with the girls’ minds.”
The New Jersey Flag Football Is Dealt A Devastating Blow
Then. on May 2, Steele reportedly received a letter from the Super Football Conference. According to the organization’s website, the conference is the largest in the country.
“They were saying that they were taking our games away — we lost our games because the girls we had were ineligible [but] they didn’t even check to see if the girls played in all of the games,” Steele explained.
According to Carter, athletes must be enrolled at the school they represent. Steele admits, however, that this hasn’t always been the case with his team members.
Watch as Carter flips through receipts while exploring Steele’s accusations of discrimination. Additionally, Carter speaks with team players as they share their perspectives on the alleged acts of sabotage.
