LA Girls' Basketball Team Won't Be Disqualified for Wearing Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

There will still be a penalty.

ByABC News
March 4, 2015, 10:51 AM

— -- A girls' high school basketball team won't be penalized because it wore pink letters and numbers on its jerseys to support breast cancer awareness. But the coach is banned for the rest of the season.

Nathaniel Narbonne High School's team in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles appealed a decision that forced it to forfeit a 57-52 playoff win on Saturday against View Park Preparatory Accelerated Charter High School because the pink on the uniforms was not an approved color, according to a league governing body.

On Tuesday, a three-person appeals panel said the team won't have to forfeit the win, but coach Victoria Sanders is out for the rest of the season, the Los Angeles Times reported. In addition, the team will be on probation through next season and the school can't host a girls' playoff game next year.

"Our biggest push was to just let the girls finish out the season, so we were glad they got their season back," Narbonne's athletic director, Kyla Berman, told ABC News. "The coach was OK with the decision that she wasn’t able to finish out the season."

Now that the top-seeded team's disqualification has been overturned, it will play in the championship game on Saturday with the approved colors of green, gold and black. But Sanders won't be allowed in the arena. Instead, the boys' basketball coach, who Berman said already closely works with Sanders, will guide the girls' team.

"I can accept it," Sanders told The Times of the punishment. Sanders, who can attend practices, will continue to be paid.

Berman said the team players were "speechless" about the panel's decision to let them play.

"They were so excited. They and the parents were disappointed, of course, Vicki won’t be there," Berman told ABC News. "But Vicki just kept telling the girls, 'Just play.' They’re ready. She’s confident they will do what they need to do."

The California Interscholastic Federation's Los Angeles City Section, which initially disqualified Narbonne's team, did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News Tuesday.