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League Changes Mind, Allows Girls Team To Play In Championship After Uniform Debacle

HARBOR CITY (CBSLA.com) — A local high school girls basketball team, that had been forced to forfeit playing in a championship game for wearing illegal uniforms, is now being allowed to play.

The Narbonne High School varsity girls basketball team worked hard all season to get into the playoffs. Upon reaching the postseason, they altered the color of the text on their jerseys to pink, hoping to raise awareness of breast cancer.

The decision, unbeknownst to the team or their coach at the time, went against the CIF league's rules, which state that a team must wear only the colors of their school. The league's initial decision was to disqualify Narbonne from the finals, and allow the team they had previously beaten to take their place.

This decision was overturned on Tuesday, on the condition they take the court in their legal uniforms, and without their coach, Vicki Sanders.

Sanders went to the board on Tuesday to appeal the original decision to ban the team in an emergency hearing. Now, her team is allowed to play in the championship, but she will not be there.

"I told them to put it all on me, don't punish the girls, put it on me," Sanders said. "That was fine."

Sanders is not even allowed at the venue; a punishment she maintains that she is fine with, as long as her girls get to play.

Narbonne is set to take on Palisades in the championship game on Saturday.

When asked if the team will go all the way this year, Sanders responded, "They should. They have to. They have to go and handle their business."

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