Clark CYO players vote to forfeit season after girls kicked off team

CLARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- A boys' CYO basketball team in New Jersey decided to forfeit the entire season in a show of support for girls on the team.

After four years of playing ball together, the nine boys and two girls on the St. John the Apostle's fifth grade team had to decide whether to continue playing without the girls after team officials were told by the CYO league director two weeks ago that female players should never have been allowed to play on the team.

Two weeks ago, the Newark Archdiocese made it clear that co-ed teams are against the rules. But that was after these kids had been a team for a very long time.

"It's just unfair, because why do it right now after we've been playing together for four years?" one male player said. "Why not do this later? Or why do it at all?"

The girls would not have been able to participate in the final two games, and by a unanimous show of hands, the boys decided that was unacceptable to them.

It served as a lesson for any adult who thinks 10-year-old friends and teammates don't know the meaning of loyalty. this is st john the apostle's 5th grade catholic youth organization team.

"It made me feel very good and very satisfying to know that they had my back," one female player said. "And that we would stick together for the whole season, and that they wouldn't want to play without me."

They gave up their chance to go to the playoffs, but they made their parents proud in the process by taking a stand for what they felt in their hearts was the only right decision to make.