Bryan Williams, the coach ousted from a Yonkers high school girls basketball team, claims that the school scapegoated him after some of his players yelled antisemitic slurs at the visiting team from a Jewish school.
This past Sunday, the Roosevelt High School Early College Studies girls basketball team in Yonkers, New York, went head-to-head against the Leffell School, a private Jewish school. During the game, several of the Roosevelt girls allegedly yelled antisemitic slurs at the Jewish team.
“I support Hamas, you fucking Jew,” one player allegedly said.
For that, the school fired coach Bryan Williams. Speaking with the New York Post, Williams said he did an “excellent job with those girls” during his three-year tenure with the team.
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Williams said he did not hear the slurs.
“I personally did not hear any of it on the court,” Williams said. “I do not condone what was allegedly done … I do not condone that. I focus on my team and what we have to try to do to win and be successful.”
Williams said the Yonkers school district “treated me unfairly.”
“They needed a scapegoat, and I was it,” he said. “They needed a fall guy.”
According to the Post, the game ended early on Sunday “after the antisemitic slurs and security guards had to escort the Leffell School players off the court after what the players described as an increasingly hostile contest.”
“The Yonkers kids played rough, and throughout the contest, they yelled ‘Free Palestine’ or other anti-Jewish statements, senior player Robin Bosworth wrote in an op-ed for the Lion’s Roar, Leffell’s student-run newspaper,” it added.
The game was eventually canceled, and Roosevelt agreed to forfeit. Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Luis Rodriguez and city Mayor Mike Spano issued a joint statement condemning the incident.
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“Collectively, we do not and will not tolerate hate speech of any kind from our students and community,” the statement said. “The antisemitic rhetoric reportedly made against the student-athletes of The Leffell School are abhorrent, inappropriate, and not in line with the values we set forth for our young people.”
Williams told the Post that the game did not go down that way.
“We were just playing basketball,” said Williams, adding that he warned the girls to “act appropriately.”
“I told them that — everyone,” he said.
“I can’t say who did what,” Williams said. “All I was focused on was my team and how we’re playing, what we need to do to be successful and win. We were winning by a lot, so I was shocked because, again, I don’t think my girls would do that.”
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