A boys basketball team was banned for playing on school property and dismissed from an Ohio youth league over racist and sexually charged language on their uniforms.
The Kings recreational league team of high school players played a game Sunday in West Clermont wearing jerseys identifying them as the "Wet Dream Team" and using racial slurs as their names, reported WLWT-TV.
Some of the players identified themselves with phony names such as "Knee Grow" and "Coon," which opponents believed were intended as racial slurs.
"That's the thing, those names are not having fun," said parent Tony Rue. "It's not so much even if we had black students or African-American students, or any minority students. Our kids were offended."
Rue contacted a representative from the Cincinnati Premier Youth Basketball League, and referees ended the game midway through the second quarter -- and the Kings team was removed from the league.
"Based on the information that we received, the actions and conduct of the team in question did not comply with our stated mission and expected standards and that team has, therefore, been dismissed from our league," said CPYBL spokesman Ben Goodyear.
Rue, who sometimes coaches his son on the West Clermont team, said his players were disappointed the game was called but agreed the jerseys showed poor judgment and sportsmanship.
"They were very unhappy when it was called, not because of the game ending but because another team's dumb decisions caused them to play just over a quarter of basketball," Rue told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "They learned nothing basketball-wise, they had to learn more about racism and stupidity."
Rue said the Kings team didn't apologize for the jerseys at the game, and he said players attacked critics from the team's Twitter page until it was taken down.
"It wasn't, 'Hey, we made a mistake, this was kids being kids,'" Rue said. "There was no shock from them on what our issue was."
Kings coach Walt Gill did issue an apology after reporters began investigating the incident.
"We sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by the jerseys," Gill said. "We offered to cover them up or change, however the league saw fit to remove us and we have accepted that decision."
Rue questioned how the jerseys lasted three weeks into the season without objection.
"How did it get this far? I don't know that answer. How did it get that far?" Rue said. "These jerseys went from a design to print to paid to worn and then laughed about for the hours after."
The team was also removed from a recreational league for middle school and high school players hosted by the Kings Local School District, where the teens are students, but school officials declined to say whether they would face discipline there.
"Kings Local Schools strongly condemns any type of hateful and racist commentary. This behavior is in no way welcome or tolerated in our schools and community," said Dawn Gould, community relations coordinator.
