On Thursday, the Norman High School women’s basketball team was scheduled to play in Midwest City at the Oklahoma 6A state basketball tournament. The game was being broadcast live on the network of the National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS).
A video from the live broadcast shows that when Norman players knelt during the National Anthem, one of the announcers began to insult them.
“Are they on their knees? F ** king n *** ers,” the person is heard saying.
“I hope Norman gets kicked in the ass,” said the speaker, who has not been officially identified.
After a brief pause, with the National Anthem still playing, the insults continued.
“F ** k them. I hope they lose.”
“Come on, Midwest City – are they going to kneel like that? Of course not,” says the announcer.
The person uses the same slanders again before the audio of the recording is completely cut off.
The school district says in its statement that the announcers were hired by the Oklahoma High School Activities Association (OSSAA) for the state tournament.
“While we are investigating the incident, this team will no longer play games for the rest of our championships,” the statement said.
OSSAA added that “this type of behavior will never be tolerated by anyone representing the NFHS or OSSAA.”
“The thoughts expressed in no way represent the NFHS Network and we are outraged that they have entered our production,” said the organization in its statement. “We are aggressively investigating the incident and immediately cut ties with the outsourced production team that was involved.”
The Norman team won the game 53-40. Coming into play, the team was ranked first in its bracket with a 17-0 record, according to TD O’Hara, the district’s athletic director.