Basketball Coach Pretends To 13-Year-Old Player During Game



An assistant high school basketball coach in Virginia has been fired after impersonating a 13-year-old player during a game this past weekend.

Arlisha Boykins, 22, an assistant junior varsity basketball coach at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, was canned from the job after the parents of a girl she was reportedly impersonating complained to school officials, sports journalist Craig Loper reported for local NBC affiliate WAVY TV.

“Coaches always preach to the kids about integrity and those types of things, so I was just shocked,” the father of the 13-year-old told Loper.

Sources told the channel that the varsity coach was “encouraging the behavior” during the game.

Footage of Boykins wearing the No. 1 can be seen in the news video below.

HuffPost reached out to Boykins through social media and to Portsmouth Public Schools for comment, but no one immediately responded.

Officials told WAVY that the Churchland JV head coach as well as the head coach of the varsity team have also been fired.

The players on both the JV and varsity teams, along with their parents, have opted out of the remainder of the season, according to the report. The team’s calendar shows the remaining games have been canceled.

Meanwhile, the parents of the girl whom Boykins impersonated say their daughter is no longer interested in attending Churchland High School.

They told WAVY they are still waiting for school officials to apologize.

This is not the first incident this month in which an adult attempted to blend in with teenage students.

Last week, New Jersey police and school officials accused Hyejeong Shin, 29, of providing a forged birth certificate in order to enroll at New Brunswick High School.





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