Bryan Williams, the now former coach of Roosevelt High School’s girls basketball team, has spoken out about his firing following an incident involving antisemitic remarks during a game against a Jewish school. Williams claims that he was unaware of the remarks made by his players and that he is being used as a “scapegoat” by the school district.
Roosevelt High School Coach Denies Hearing Slurs
Williams stated that he personally did not hear any of the alleged antisemitic comments on the court and that he does not condone such behavior.
As reported by Bounding Into Sports earlier this week, players on the Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball team were accused of violent play and chanting “free Palestine” and other offensive remarks at players from the Leffell School girls’ basketball team. Leffell is a private Jewish school.
One Roosevelt player, according to various reports, even said to their opponent, “I support Hamas, you f***ing Jew.”
Coach Williams though, contends that if these anti-Semitic comments were made by his players, he didn’t hear them.
“I personally did not hear any of it on the court,” Williams told The New York Post. “I do not condone what was allegedly done … I do not condone that. I focus on my team and what we have to try to do to win and be successful.”
The former Roosevelt High School girls’ basketball coach feels he’s being made an example of by the school district.
“They needed a scapegoat, and I was it,” he said. “They needed a fall guy.”
Along with the coach’s firing, one of the players for Roosevelt was kicked off the team following the ugly incident which led to the game in question being abruptly halted and Leffell players having to be escorted out of the arena by security guards.
Even with that, Williams contends that he is the victim here and that the Yonkers school district “treated me very unfairly.”
