Faith leads high school basketball team to forfeit Alabama championship tournament
A high school basketball team was four wins from an Alabama state championship when suddenly it forfeited.
The team chose faith over the regional semifinal game, but it was a decision the team told CNN it didn’t want to have to make and garnered attention from religious organizations around the state and Governor Kay Ivey.
The Oakwood Adventist Academy boys’ basketball team in Huntsville advanced to the Class 1A regional semifinals. While the team was thrilled to be a part of the semifinals, it hit a sacrilegious snag, CNN reported.
The game was scheduled during Sabbath, at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 19. Sabbath is practiced from sundown on Fridays until sundown on Saturdays.
After realizing the conflict, Oakwood Adventist Academy reached out to the Alabama High School Athletics Association and requested to change the game time from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., which would not require the students to break Sabbath, WHNT reported.
Even though competing teams had agreed to accommodate the request, the AHSAA denied it, resulting in the team forfeiting instead of breaking Sabbath, WHNT reported.
“We weren’t asking for a change of stadium or venue or a change of a different day,” athletic director Calvin Morton told CNN. “It was a simple two-to-three-hour game change ... which we thought was a reasonable ask.”
Ivey thought it was reasonable, too, and wrote a letter to the AHSAA challenging the denial after she heard the news.
“Few things are more important to Alabamians than their faith ... it drives Alabamians to make their communities better,” Ivey wrote. “With all of this in mind, I hope you’ll understand why I was most disturbed to read about Oakwood’s alleged treatment at the AHSAA’s basketball tournament.”
Ivey sent seven questions to the association, ending with, “How can we as a State ensure that something like this never occurs again?”
Ivey also sent a letter to the Oakwood Adventist Academy and offered to meet with the team to learn more about the incident. Oakwood Adventist Academy Principal Judy Dent accepted the offer, according to CNN.
“The events of last week devastated our students and community. The AHSAA’s refusal to provide a reasonable religious accommodation ... shocked and astonished us,” Dent wrote in her response letter. “Your invitation to the Capitol will provide a capstone event for our students. They will see that some things are bigger than basketball and our faith is one of those things.”
Even though the team forfeited, the players showed up to the tournament after sundown on Feb. 19, to support Decatur Heritage Christian Academy and thank them for offering to switch the schedule, WHNT reported.
“Their selfless display of sportsmanship in attending the playoff games at Jacksonville State University, despite their forced forfeit, to cheer on those teams who so graciously agreed to accommodate your team’s Sabbath observance, is an inspiring example to competitors and athletes everywhere,” Ivey wrote in her letter to the school.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Faith leads high school basketball team to forfeit Alabama championship tournament."
