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Edited by: Fern Sidman
In a recent and highly controversial turn of events, Bryan Williams, the ousted coach of the Roosevelt High School girls basketball team in Yonkers, has claimed that he was unfairly made a scapegoat by school officials following an incident involving patently anti-Semitic slurs directed at a visiting team from a Jewish school, as was reported by the New York Post. The incident, which occurred during a game against the Leffell School in Hartsdale, has led to Williams’ dismissal and a player being removed from the team.
Bryan Williams, a coach with a three-year tenure at Roosevelt High School, asserted that he had done an “excellent job with those girls,” the Post reported. However, the fallout from the game against the Leffell School became the catalyst for his removal. The incident, which took place on January 4, ended in a forfeit due to the reprehensible anti-Semitic slurs hurled at the Leffell School players, thus creating a hostile atmosphere that required security intervention.
According to a previous report in the Post, the New York City Public Schools Alliance reported one Roosevelt player snarling, “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew” at a Leffell opponent. The verbal abuse reached a point where security guards had to escort the Jewish players off the court to ensure their safety.
According to Robin Bosworth, a senior player from The Leffell School and editor-in-chief of the school paper, The Lion’s Roar, the game was marked by hostility from the beginning, the report in the Post said. She detailed that her teammates were subjected to substantially more jabs and comments than in previous games. As the game progressed into the third quarter, rough plays led to injuries among Leffell players. The Post report added that the situation intensified when players from the opposing team started shouting “Free Palestine” and other anti-Semitic slurs.
Williams expressed surprise at the accusations, stating that he personally did not hear any anti-Semitic slurs on the court, according to the Post report. He emphasized that he did not condone such behavior and focused on coaching his team to be successful. Williams suggested that the Yonkers school district needed a scapegoat and that he became the unfortunate target, describing himself as the “fall guy,” the Post report added.
Yonkers Public Schools Interim Superintendent Dr. Luis Rodriguez and Mayor Mike Spano issued a joint statement on Sunday, denouncing the deplorable anti-Semitic remarks and expressed apologies to the Leffell School athletes for the vitriol they faced, according to information provided in the Post report. The statement emphasized that hate speech would not be tolerated, asserting that the reported anti-Semitic rhetoric was “abhorrent, inappropriate, and not in line with the values” set forth for the students and the community, as was indicated in the Post report.
Williams, who is also the CEO, founder, and program director of the Hoopers NY, an “elite girls national travel basketball program,” has passionately defended his team’s conduct and expressed frustration over what he perceives as an unjust investigation.
Williams asserted that the game did not unfold as described by some accounts. According to him, his team played the game properly, employing tough defense and adhering to the principles of basketball, as was indicated in the Post report.
According to the report in the Post, Williams revealed that he had forewarned his players about the sensitivity of the match, given that they would be playing against a Jewish team.
