WILDER, Ky. — A Northern Kentucky girls basketball team went 7-1 playing in a boys division, but they aren't competing at the regional end-of-season tournament. The team says they were banned from participating because they're girls. The organizing league says there was more to it than that.
Erica Hallman is the basketball director for Next Level Academy in Wilder and also coaches the sixth-grade team at the center of this decision. She said she's frustrated by the shut out.
"Man, our girls can compete with the boys any day of the week. Any day," she said. "We played in the boys league fall 2023 and then we played again this winter session we'd gone 7-1 against boys. The game that we did lose I think we lost by maybe four points or less — I mean my girls completely dominated the entire league."
Despite the winning record, Hallman said she and the academy's director Larry McGraw received texts from Southwestern Ohio Basketball leaders telling them the team wouldn't be allowed to participate in the end-of-season tournament, which started Friday.
Next Level shared some of the alleged texts in a social media post.
"...what we have worried about is a boys team is losing to a girls team (especially in a year end tourney) they may get frustrated and retaliate against a girl," a text allegedly sent by the tournament directors reads.
"Throughout the season we had a few teams come to us about this and raise concerns about it. Because of this we decided to keep them out of the tournament," another text reads.
Hallman said her girls are being unfairly discriminated against and shouldn't be punished because they make for tough competition. Other Next Level girl teams play in boys divisions, as do some teams in different organizations, she said.
"Lady Future for example. They had a really solid program," Hallman said. "They used to play against boys all the time. They never were banned from playing."
WCPO 9 reached out to Southwestern Ohio Basketball on Saturday. They posted a statement in response to Next Level's claims on their website.
The policy for boys and girls leagues at SWOB has been the same for 28 years with our primary concern being the safety of our kids, with liability reasons closely following. We abide by the same rule that the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) organization and OHSAA adheres to regarding girls playing in boys’ leagues/events.
In November of 2023, Next Level and Larry McGraw deceptively registered a girls team into the 6th grade boys league and under the gender listed as MALE. We entered them into the league assuming they were a boys’ team as conveniently no roster was ever provided. Subsequently, their first game was filled in by a boys 6th grade Next Level team because they played the 6th grade boys Cincinnati Royals team - coached by myself, so there was no reason to suspect anything different.
It wasn’t until late January/early February that several teams from the 6th grade division started traveling down to Kentucky to play their scheduled games, that it became apparent that the Next Level team was, in fact, a girls team. Several complaints from coaches and teams were filed because of this deception. At that point we allowed the team to finish the regular season schedule, but would move them into a girls’ tourney at year end.
On February 14th we reiterated to Larry McGraw again that we do not allow girls teams to participate in boy’s leagues, as this has been our policy for 28 years. We indicated to him that due to the safety and competitiveness of the league we were not going to allow them to play in the boys’ tourney but gave the team the option to participate in a higher level girls’ tourney. The liability and safety concerns were fully explained to him at this time.
"The concern is safety. I have had several girls teams ask about playing boys leagues in the past, and as a girls' varsity coach, I understand the reasoning to play in them. Doing this 28 years, what we have worried about is a boys team losing to a girls team (especially in the year end tourney), they may get frustrated and retaliate against a girl. Then we have liability issues.”
On the evening of February 23rd , Larry McGraw and the Next Level organization sent a letter out to its players and families dropping all their teams out of the postseason tourney. The reasoning they gave was that their 6th grade girls team was 'blocked from finishing the season specifically because of their gender'. Since then, they have released unfounded and harassing statements through social media sites accusing SWOB of “blocking them from participating in the year end tournament due to the fact they are girls.” These statements are absolutely not true. They were given the option to play in the upper 6th grade, the 7th grade or even 8th grade girls season ending tourney, just like all other girls teams.
There are two sides to every story. SWOB stands by our decision because it is one that places the safety of our kids in a competitive environment at the top of our priorities. We appreciate the support of those who have reached out to seek the truth and understanding as to why this decision was made and are now fully cognizant of the real support that we have as an organization.
As SWOB's statement reads, Next Level did pull all their teams — boys and girls — from this weekend's tournament. On Monday, we reached out once again to SWOB for an on-camera interview. The president of the league, Larry Sunderman declined an on-camera interview with WCPO but said he's now hired an attorney and is thinking about filing legal action against Next Level Academy.
Sunderman also said he and his family have been on the receiving end of threats and harassment and wants it all to stop. We also asked Sunderman if he was planning on filing a police report and he said yes.
WCPO asked McGraw about the allegations of never sending a roster to the league.
"Factually, that's true, and again we intentionally entered them into the boys league just as we had done in the season before that," said McGraw. "I think rosters, and I guess that protocol is a little loose in our sport, they told us that in order to get our schedule, we had to submit a roster, we still go our schedule."
WCPO also asked McGraw if any girls were playing on boys teams during this past weekend's tournament.
"Yes, so the league told us we could not play in the boys division ... but this weekend we were witness to several girls playing on boys teams," said McGraw.
Hallman said the move was done as a sign of protest to the league's decision.
"If one team can't play, nobody else is going to play," said Hallman. "It just doesn't make sense to us."
Watch Live:
