A 22-year-old assistant basketball coach has been fired — along with both the JV and Varsity head coaches — after she impersonated one of her junior varsity players during a game.
Alisha Boykins, who was an assistant coach at Churchland High School in the Portsmouth School District in Virginia, suited up and played with the team in place of a 13-year-old student who was unable to make it to their January 21 game.
The student, who was unaware that Boykins had impersonated her until after the fact, was playing a game with a club team that night — and she and her family have since asked the coach and the school for an apology.
WATCH:
Something you don't see every day. An assistant coach on a JV girls basketball team impersonated a 13-year-old player on the team in a game. The coach is no longer an employee of the Portsmouth School District. @WAVY_News
More information: pic.twitter.com/Hrs1oEJvME
— Craig Loper II (@CraigLoperWAVY) January 30, 2023
Video taken at the game shows Boykins, wearing the #1 jersey, dominating the court as she easily maneuvers around the other team, standing taller than the other girls.
The father of the student Boykins played for spoke to sports reporter Craig Loper II of WAVY News in Hampton Roads, Virginia — and he said that what surprised him the most about the situation was that something like this could happen after the coaches preached so often to the kids about having integrity.
“Coaches, you know, always preach to the kids about integrity and those types of things, so I was just shocked,” he said in a phone interview with Loper. “I just needed, you know, an apology because I haven’t yet received one from the overseer of the program or nothing. He just came out and just told us the stipulations of what was going to happen, but there was no apology issued personally to us, even in his presence.”
Boykins was fired, as were the JV head coach and the varsity head coach at the school — who had reportedly encouraged the deception. The student who was impersonated has opted not to return to Churchland High School next year.
The school has opened an investigation into the situation, and the other student athletes and their parents have said that they will not complete the current basketball season.