What happened in basketball game featuring trans basketball player from Kipp Academy? Everything to know about the incident in viral video

A high school basketball match between the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell in Massachusetts and KIPP Academy has recently made headlines after the former team forfeited the match after three of their players got injured.

However, the reason behind the match hitting the headlines was the involvement of a transgender athlete in the KIPP Academy team. During the game, the transgender athlete allegedly injured the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell players, who were unable to continue playing.

The video of this high school basketball game, held on February 8, 2024, immediately started going viral on the internet. InsideLowell, a YouTube channel, shared an exclusive video of the game on their channel, which has now over 47,000 views.

In the video, one can see a six-foot transgender athlete from KIPP Academy scoring a basket. While the trans athlete was attempting to score, she reportedly injured an opponent team’s athlete.

The Collegiate Charter School’s player wasn’t able to get up immediately after landing on the ground as she was in pain and needed assistance from others.

The video sparked huge debates with people arguing that the coach should have called out, the team should have boycotted instead of forfeiting, and the game wasn’t fair, considering the notion that the competitive advantage of transgender athletes over biological female athletes.

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Why did the coach of Collegiate Charter School of Lowell in Massachusetts decide to forfeit the game against KIPP Academy?

In a released statement by the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell, it was revealed that the coach of the girls' basketball team forfeited the game against KIPP Academy after his team’s third player got injured while playing the match.

Before the beginning of the game, the team had an already depleted bench with four players from the 12-member squad not able to make it to the game.

With three more girls getting hurt in the first half and playoff games approaching, the coach conceded the game keeping in mind the safety of his team as he required a healthy squad ahead of the important games.

The other five members of the team also hesitated to continue playing, fearing injury and being unable to participate in the playoffs, which resulted in the coach taking the decision.

However, the statement from the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell didn’t have any mentions of the transgender athlete.

Additionally, Kyle Pelczar, the collegiate athletics director, spoke to the Daily Item, a daily news publisher based in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, adding that their decision to forfeit the match had nothing to do with the KIPP Academy player.