A youth soccer player was ejected from a Bucks County game for wearing hair beads

A youth soccer player was sidelined during a game in Bucks County last weekend after a referee said the beads in her hair posed a danger to other players, her coach said.

The referee ejected sixth grader Hasiyanah Shannon Wilson — who goes by the nickname “Sassy” — while she was playing in an Inter-County Youth Soccer League game, said Carly Najera, Wilson’s Kensington Soccer Club coach.

The referee told Wilson that she could only keep playing if she cut out the beads, even though they were secured, Najera said, and then yelled at Najera when the coach asked about the decision.

“If there are rules in place that are old and they exclude certain kids,” Najera said, “I think soccer organizations should want to be more inclusive, not less.”

She said she didn’t believe Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, the association that oversees the travel league, was “a racist organization” but said its rules should be changed so this doesn’t happen to another child.

Wilson and Najera, who had driven an hour from Kensington to make the game in Perkasie, arrived as it was starting, Najera said. But within 30 seconds of Wilson taking the field, the referee ejected the 11-year-old, who is Black, due to her hair beads being considered prohibited jewelry.

Hair beads, an important part of Black style and culture, have been at the center of some recent controversies in youth and high school sports across the country, with rules ostensibly about athlete safety now widely viewed as discrimination against athletes of color.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association this week lifted its rule prohibiting student athletes from wearing hair beads during competitions after 30 school superintendents asked it to do so. The superintendents said the rule was discriminatory. A video also went viral this week of a high school powerlifter’s teammates and opponents working together to help remove her hair beads so she wouldn’t be disqualified from the Mississippi state championships.

In 2018, a high school wrestler in South Jersey had his dreadlocks cut off at a match after a referee told him he would have to forfeit if he didn’t.

The U.S. House of Representatives last month passed the CROWN Act, which bans race-based hair discrimination in employment and federal programs. New Jersey did so in 2019, while some Pennsylvania lawmakers are pushing for a CROWN Act to be passed in the commonwealth.

In Bucks County, Najera said she and Wilson were “surprised that in 2022,” anyone would take issue with the beads, especially when they were secured safely.

“It’s culturally appropriate for someone to have beads in her hair, and, if it’s not a danger to anyone else, why would it matter?” Najera said.

Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer did not respond to requests for comment by The Inquirer.

In a statement to 6ABC, the association said the referee remains active while the incident is being investigated.

“Referees are required to follow FIFA regulations and according to those regulations, the referee’s decision was within the laws of the game,” the association told the network. “That being said, while the referee may have acted appropriately according to the laws of the game, in relation to the coach’s account, his response and demeanor was not.”

Najera was not coaching Wilson on Sunday (the game was for a different team), she said, but drove Wilson to the game and had planned to watch her play.

Instead, Najera said, she saw Wilson crying behind the team bench, something she hadn’t seen Wilson do in five years of coaching her.

“I really didn’t like the way the ref was acting because he was pointing at me,” Wilson told 6ABC.

Wilson’s beads were tucked into her uniform, Najera said, and did not pose a danger to anyone. They told the referee that they would secure them in a different way if needed, Najera said, but he said the only solution was for the beads to be cut out.

Najera approached the referee at half-time, she said, and asked, “Are you really going to deny this child the opportunity?”

He yelled at Najera, she said, and refused to let Wilson play. In the past, Najera said, referees have let Wilson play with beads, which Wilson does not always wear, but in this case had gotten done for Easter.

Wilson “felt embarrassed because she was the only Black child,” Najera said. “But she did walk out of there with her head held high.”

On the drive home, the pair discussed what had happened, Najera said, and the coach told Wilson she supported her.

“I asked her, ‘Do you want me to pursue this?,’ ” Najera said. “She asked me to follow through and make sure it doesn’t happen to everyone else.”

Wilson’s mother also asked Najera to spread the word about what happened.

In the days since, local support has lifted Wilson, whom her coach called an “incredible” soccer player.

“She hopes there will be change,” Najera said, “so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”