Coach: Youth team's 'racist' jerseys referenced surnames

Published Jan. 12, 2018 11:18 a.m. ET

CINCINNATI (AP) The coach of a teenage basketball team dismissed from a Cincinnati recreational league for wearing jerseys with racist names has questioned how the league handled the situation and says the monikers were variations of his players' surnames.

The team suggestively nicknamed the ''Wet Dream Team'' wore jerseys with labels that included ''Knee Grow.''

The Cincinnati Premier Youth Basketball League dismissed the team from suburban Kings Mills after an opponent raised concerns during the fourth week of games.

Coach Walt Gill said in emails to the league that no one previously complained, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported .

''I really don't feel that this was handled correctly,'' Gill wrote in an email to a league spokesman Ben Goodyear. Gill requested a partial refund, saying he didn't understand why he got no chance to rectify the situation.

Goodyear refused to accept Gill's explanation for the jersey names in his email response.

''I just could not believe that any adult would want to argue or try to justify this behavior,'' Goodyear said.

Gill submitted the ''Wet Dream Team'' moniker to volunteer Kings Knights 7-12 organization coordinator Charrise Middleton.

''I told coach Gill he could not use the team name of `Wet Dream Team,''' Middleton said. Gill never had a discussion about the names on the back of the jerseys, according to Middleton.

Gill previously apologized in a statement, but hasn't responded to media requests for comment.

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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com