Tag: Youth Football

Sports in America often sit at the crossroads of social, cultural, and racial debates. From controversial referee calls to athletes taking a knee during the national anthem, the conversation extends from little league to the pros. In this episode, we explore how sports and race intersect in a Kanawha County youth football league.

We love our sports in America.

From little league to professional competition, athletic teams can bring us together. However sports can also spotlight some of our most pointed social, culture and racial debates.  Mascot names drive a wedge between fans. Some athletes choose to display their opinions about political candidates or police violence.

In this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the intersection of race and sports. Lawsuits over youth football in West Virginia have highlighted questions between teams and leagues over who’s allowed to play and whether young Black and brown athletes face discrimination. While some parents accuse the youth leagues of foul play, the leagues say some parents are simply not following the rules.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, and the Daywood Foundation.

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The Charleston Cougars football team is not allowed to play in their local league in Kanawha County, West Virginia. To compete, they must travel over an hour to face teams in Parkersburg or even Ohio. Coach Rayshawn Hall explains that the travel is a financial strain for some parents and a challenge for others who need to take time off work. When Us & Them host Trey Kay asked Hall how it feels not being able to play locally, he responded, “Weird. It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like home. Even when we have home games, it doesn’t feel the same. Nothing feels the same.”

In the fall of 2013, Olubunmi Kusimo-Frazier was asked to represent a youth football team from the West Side of Charleston, W.Va. that had been barred from a Kanawha County football league in West Virginia. The team, part of a club league not governed by a school system or any single authority, had nowhere to play that season. Each league has its own bylaws and requirements, often run by parent volunteers, which can lead to inconsistencies and confusion when new teams join. It also opens the door to potential unfair practices.

Kusimo-Frazier said all the teams were originally part of one league, but when that league disbanded and formed a new one, existing teams were invited to reapply for membership. However, some teams were not accepted, including those with a high concentration of African-American and mixed-race players. To Kusimo-Frazier and the affected teams, the exclusion appeared racially motivated.

She filed a civil rights lawsuit to allow the excluded teams to play. The suit, against the Kanawha County Board of Education, sought to prevent the league from using school property for games unless all teams—representing all citizens—were allowed to participate. Kusimo-Frazier noted that while private clubs can discriminate against non-members on private property, an organization cannot enforce discriminatory practices on public property.

The case was settled without an evidentiary hearing, but Kusimo-Frazier said she felt confident in the legal theory of her case.

But why were these teams excluded in the first place?

Kusimo-Frazier recalled that many around the league didn’t like how certain parents behaved during games.

“They didn’t like the way the parents acted. They felt the parents were sometimes vulgar,” she said. “This is a Sunday morning, and they didn’t want to deal with rowdy parents. They wanted a more congenial atmosphere, with good sportsmanship. They didn’t like that the coaches would curse in front of the children.”

However, she believes there was another factor. The excluded teams had a history of success on the field.

“When you look at who was winning championships before the league was restructured, it was [the excluded teams]—year after year. I think they got tired of it.”

Redman, who is Black, has a mixed-race son who has played youth football for three years. He says he’s seen situations similar to the 2013 lawsuit brought by Olubunmi Kusimo-Frazier, although some issues are more about leadership than race.

“There are so many layers to this onion,” Redman says. “The most recent issue wasn’t about color—it was about leadership. People were upset because we were winning by 40 points with a team of talented kids from across the city. After we went undefeated, there were suddenly issues with the paperwork, and the majority-Black team was disqualified.”

The “books” Redman refers to are the paperwork each player must have, such as a birth certificate, medical clearance, and proof of address. A player must have a waiver to join a team outside their zone. After his team’s undefeated season, the league cited problems with some players’ paperwork.

“We went to court and got permission to play in the playoffs, but it didn’t work out for us. After the court hearing, teams left to join a different league, and the league basically dissolved. The following year, we won the championship again, but they disqualified us because a player had participated in middle school football,” Redman says.

Because of the rules violation on one team, all three of Redman’s teams were disqualified. His wife, Tiffany Davis Redman, also a lawyer, filed an injunction, allowing the other teams to continue playing.

Attorney Olubunmi Kusimo-Frazier reflected on the disqualifications, comparing them to voter suppression tactics.

“It feels like a poll tax—like keeping the wrong people from voting,” Kusimo-Frazier says. “Instead of educating and helping people follow the rules, they make it exclusive. Why kick people out instead of guiding them to do it right?”

Knapp, who is white, says his team is about 90% white this year. He explains that players must get a waiver to switch teams, including kids from travel leagues whose seasons end in the middle of the youth football season.

In 2021, before Knapp became a coach, South Hills allowed several travel team players to join midseason, which led to them dominating other teams. This upset parents, prompting league presidents to agree on stricter rules for waivers and transfers.

When the next season began, several players from South Hills wanted to transfer to the Charleston Cougars but were denied due to the timing. The decision caused outrage, leading to racial accusations against the South Hills president and threats that escalated to police involvement.

Knapp insists the issue wasn’t racial but a matter of following rules. “It wasn’t about race—it came down to rules,” Knapp said, explaining that travel teams have both Black and white players. “But on social media, it turned into a racial issue.”

To avoid conflict, South Hills canceled a game against Charleston, and later, the team withdrew from the playoffs. The controversy contributed to South Hills’ decision to leave the league, as they believed other teams weren’t adhering to the agreed-upon rules.

Knapp acknowledges the inconsistency in leadership year over year, as new board members and coaches take over when others leave. Despite this, he says many coaches and volunteers go out of their way to support the kids, even buying equipment or helping them with schoolwork.

At the end of the day, Knapp, like Trent Redman, says that every time something like this happens, teams leave the league—and it’s the kids who lose out.

Rayshawn Hall has played football since he was 5 years old and believes in the value of bringing kids from different backgrounds together through sports.

“I met a lot of people through playing sports, even some of my best friends, whether they were white or Black,” Hall said. “It didn’t matter. Once we came together, it was like a brotherhood. I don’t know what they did outside of sports, but when we were together, that’s all that mattered.”