Their basketball season has not even started but one North Texas team already knows it will not be in the playoffs.
The day before their season opener, members of Duncanville's top-ranked boys basketball team found out they're already out of the postseason after Duncanville ISD announced Friday, "the team will opt out of UIL post-season play."
“We're 16 to 18-year-old kids and it’s distressing that we're getting caught up in all the politics of all this,” said team captain Jackson Prince.
The decision comes less than two weeks after the team was stripped of its 2022 state title and placed on three years of probation after the UIL ruled the team used an ineligible player, despite the family of that player receiving six court orders allowing him to keep playing, according to Duncanville ISD.
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“It brought us closer together. We're a family,” said Aric Demings.
Demings and Prince are seniors who were on last year’s team.
“We feel like we're the most affected but the most neglected in this situation, like at some point it’s beginning to shy away from the kids,” said Demings.
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In a statement, Duncanville's school superintendent Dr. Marc Smith said, “We believe the UIL has a better understanding of our situation and will not impose any additional penalties if we opt-out of post-season play this school year.”
Smith said the decision is in the best interest of the students, student-athletes, the boys' basketball program, the district, and the community.
Players' parents condemned the decision and are asking the UIL to step in and reverse it, to restore the team's playoff dreams.
“The boys haven't done wrong to have their season taken away from them the way that they have. They just play basketball,” said Tarasha Holland, parent of Ron Holland, Texas’s top-ranked recruit.
The district says Duncanville's boys basketball team will play games on their posted schedule, including district games.
Their season opener is Saturday at 7 p.m. in Duncanville.
Duncanville’s former head boys’ and girls’ basketball coaches were also suspended last month for one year by the UIL.
This week, the district reassigned them to different roles within the district.
The UIL did not immediately respond to NBC 5's request for comment.
