default-cbs-image

Over the weekend, a group of fifth-graders exhibited one of the biggest examples of sportsmanship, fair play, unity and friendship you'll see anywhere this basketball season.

There is an inspiring story, via Jessica Remo of NJ.com, about a Catholic Youth Organization basketball team that had played its season with an 11-person roster: nine boys and two girls. In late January the director of the CYO league informed the team that playing as a coed team violated league protocol, and that the team would either have to remove the two girls from the team or forfeit the rest of its season.

The boys chose the girls. They stayed together, and in doing so, gave up their remaining games. The director of the league reportedly instructed the game officials not to officiate the game if the girls were in uniform and on the bench.

All of this played out at a gymnasium, not a board room or church basement -- but right as the St. John's youth game was supposed to happen. More, via NJ.com:

In the crowd, supporters cheered along. Several parents began to cry.

"Pride. Just pure pride," answered parent Denise Laskody through tears when asked what she thought of the vote. "These kids are doing the right thing. We don't have to tell them what to do. They just know. It's amazing."

The refs wouldn't take the court. The St. Bart's team, who had already warmed up, exited the gym. Some St. Bart's parents, hearing about the drama, told St. John's parents they were sorry and that they would have loved to have played, but it was out of their hands. The St. Bart's coach would not comment for this story.

The coed team had played together as a group for years. The violation of league rules was an oversight, and it all came to an adult-driven problem that was ultimately decided by children.

"It's like they almost don't recognize me as female," Kayla Martel lovingly says of her friends/teammates in the video below, provided by NJ.com. "It's like I'm part of them, just as they're part of me, and they don't want to break that bond, just like I don't want to break this bond."

Quite an inspiring scene and action by those boys. They chose friendship over conventions, teammates or tradition. It will be hard to find a better story in basketball any time soon.