It quickly, however, became a focal point of the April 19 game. First, a coach on the opposing team claimed they couldn’t see her jersey number, Pyles said. Pyles, 16, said she tucked the braids into her sports bra and continued playing. But then, later that same inning, it came up again.
A coach on the opposing team pointed out the beads to the umpire, Pyles said. Beads in hair, according to the rulebook, weren’t permitted. So despite playing four prior games with the beads, the umpire gave Pyles a choice: Either take the beads out, or don’t play.
“I asked why is this now an issue … and he said it’s a rule, there’s nothing he can do,” Pyles told CNN.
So Pyles’ said her teammates gathered around, attempting to take the beads out of the hair. Because they were wound so tightly, they had to cut some of the hair out in order to remove all the beads, Pyles said.
“I felt dehumanized,” Pyles said.
Now, Pyles’ family is attempting to get the rule changed.
“Everyone’s hiding behind the rules of the game,” Julius Pyles, Pyles’ father, told CNN. “If there was a rule, it should’ve been applied in the beginning, (not in) their last game.”
Rule is ‘culturally biased and inappropriate,’ school district says
Pyles’ experience is a familiar one.
Julius Pyles says he has reached out to multiple people with Durham Public Schools and the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Though DPS has publicly supported Pyles, the NCHSAA has not.
The district went on to encourage the NCHSAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), of which NCHSAA is a member and thus dictating rules across North Carolina high school sports, to review the policy, calling it “culturally biased and inappropriate.”
Rule may be addressed next month, national organization says
Tucker called the experience “truly unfortunate,” but said the coach’s duty is to ensure players are aware of the rules before playing.
The rule regarding beads in hair was first enacted in 2012, according to Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the NFHS. It was instituted to “minimize the risk of injury” to athletes during competition, the organization said.
Though the NFHS did not say if the rule would be amended, Niehoff did say the NFHS Softball Rules Committee will “address hair beads and other adornments at its annual meeting next month.”
The rule as it stands, though, is discriminatory, Julius Pyles said.
“It’s 2021, and now my child is being a part of something that should be dead and gone. I didn’t serve this country to then be discriminated against,” said Julius Pyles, a veteran.
