Parents upset over Charlotte school’s decision to cut basketball program

CHARLOTTE — Some students in south Charlotte say their basketball dreams are being cut short after their school apparently cut the team.

Players and parents of the United Faith Christian Academy say the head of the school sent an email to parents on August 23 that some students skipped school after being incorrectly informed there would be no basketball program.

The head of the school then said due to those events, the school would not have a basketball program.

Brian McLaughlin, parent of UFCA basketball player Izayah McLaughlin, said he was sent an email by the school stating they will not release his son’s transcripts until he pays a $1,000 withdrawal fee and the remainder of the semester’s tuition, which totals more than $6,000.

“It’s greed, like, I don’t know any other way, like, there’s nothing United about that faith,” Brian McLaughlin said.

Attorney William Harding sent the school a letter on behalf on the McLaughlin family and other basketball families. The attorney is requesting the school release the families of financial obligations, refund dues already paid, release transcripts, notify the North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association of the plans to not have a basketball team and ask the association to waive the typical 120-day suspension for transfer students.

“Seeing your child going through something and you cannot help them at all,” Brian McLaughlin said about his son not being able to play. “Yeah, it hurts, just trying to understand where his mental health is in all of this,”

Izayah says he is hopeful that he will find an opportunity to play basketball his senior year so he can open the door for scholarships.

“I’m still trying to work plan A, but plan B is definitely an option too,” he said.

United Faith Christian Academy sent a statement to Channel 9 on Friday, stating it intends to have a basketball team and new coach for the 2024-2025 school year.

The full statement can be read below:

“In the last several weeks, there have been significant news stories concerning United Faith Christian Academy (“UFCA”) and our boys basketball program. First and foremost, there seems to be some lack of clarity regarding who we are as a Christian school. United Faith Christian Academy is a Christian school that is dedicated to making a meaningful impact on the world for Christ by educating young people through a program that engages the body, soul, and spirit in a Christ-centered teaching environment. Our mission is to educate and disciple young people through our programs at UFCA for the purpose of seeing God glorified through the lives of each student. As a Christian school, our priority is ensuring our programs all support this mission. In effort to clarify and strengthen our mission, our school communicated to our athletic department how we would be accomplishing these efforts in the coming school year. The basketball coach, unfortunately, was not in alignment with the school’s leadership in the direction, and he chose not to continue his employment with the school within these parameters. With his sudden departure right before school began, families were told that the basketball program would not exist and have been told they need to move their children from the school. Since those decisions were made, our school has been the recipient of multiple demand letters requesting refunds and release from the school so that the families who were only at the school for the basketball program could transfer to another school. We are deeply grieved that these families were only here for the athletics program and that they have resorted to these tactics against our school. We have instructed our legal counsel to reach out to their lawyer to resolve their concerns and bring resolution to this matter as quickly as possible. Our desire is to assist them in this transition and help them resolve these concerns. Our school has every intention of hiring a new basketball coach and having a team this year as we have had in previous years. Due to this change, we have changed our status with NCISAA to provisional to allow our school to continue our athletics program but in a manner that supports the Gospel-centric mission of our school. Because of this change, students transferring from UFCA to another NCISAA member school will not be subject to the 120-day transfer rule, and those who reclassified while at UFCA will retain their additional year of eligibility. UFCA is committed to rebuilding all of its sports programs with integrity and a standard of excellence within the focus of our school’s mission. We deeply regret that the changes with the basketball program have caused some families to choose to leave as we value every student and family that has been a part of UFCA and wish them God’s blessings as they move forward. For any further questions or concerns, please reach out to our legal counsel at The National Center for Life and Liberty at 888-233-6255 or by email at info@ncll.org.”

(WATCH BELOW: CMS school quickly improves after principal addresses teacher absenteeism)

CMS school quickly improves after principal addresses teacher absenteeism

©2024 Cox Media Group