COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A graphic shown in at least one Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) basketball coach and referee rules meeting depicting Black athletes' hairstyles sparked controversy among some coaches who said their part of the state may have been targeted.
"Sit in there, listen, listen to the spiel. Listen to whatever new rules that may come out, listen to how they're going to start enforcing some of the other rules that we've already known are already in place," said Cookeville High School men's basketball coach Josh Heard of his attendance at the annual TSSAA rules meeting.
But the meeting he attended in September in Dekalb County kicked off with an image on a handout that unsettled him.
"As I look at the handout, I read through it on the bottom, and I'm trying to just decipher what I'm looking at and you know, I look at the 'legal,' the 'illegal,' [hairstyles] " he recalled. "I actually flip the pamphlet over because part of me is saying, ‘Well maybe this is just referring to the Black kids and other side is referring to, you know, other ethnic ethnicities,’ but it's the other side is blank. So I've turned it back over, and I still can't believe what I'm looking at and that's when I started looking around. I started looking at other coaches just shaking my head like, like, ‘what is this?’"
"The individuals are just completely blacked out. They look they're just—they're Black individuals, and not just the color, but their hairstyles are, also their dreadlocks. Their braids. You know, there is no straight hair, you know, it's just it's African American hairstyles only on these on this picture," Heard described.
NewsChannel 5 learned the image was created by and sent out by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) along with other graphics to help state high school associations understand the change from the old rule which read:
"Rubber, cloth or elastic bands may be used to control hair. Hard items, including, but not limited to, beads, barrettes and bobby pins, are prohibited. Hair-control devices are not required to meet color restrictions."
The new rule for the 2022-2023 season reads:
"Rubber, cloth or elastic bands may be used to control hair. Hard items, including, but not limited to, beads, barrettes, bobby pins and other adornments in the hair that are securely fastened to the head and do not present an increased risk to the player, teammates or opponents are allowed. Hair-control devices are not required to meet color restrictions."
Despite multiple graphics being sent by NFHS to TSSAA, only the image below was passed around during the Dekalb County TSSAA meeting in September that kicked off by explaining the new hair rule that NFHS said was created to make the game more inclusive.
"It was extremely important to the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee to create rules language that supported diversity of hair trends while minimizing the risk of injury to the athlete, teammates and opponents," NFHS said in a statement to NewsChannel 5. "Creating inclusive educational tools through case plays and the annual NFHS Basketball Rules PowerPoint was a focus of the committee to assist our member state associations with the education of local coaches and officials. The delivery and presentation of these materials is administered by each state association."
Heard said he does not oppose the rule, but instead how the rule was presented.
"I am not opposed to the rule. First of all, I know players are not going to wear their hair that way and play basketball anyway. So I'm not worried about the rule," stated Heard. "My displeasure and just totally disrespect towards myself and my profession, is the handout, the illustration of the rule. Like I don't understand why I was I don't understand why that was put out."
Heard checked in with coaches in other parts of the state such as Nashville and Memphis and learned none of the NFHS graphics were shown in those coach/referee rules meetings—some before and some after the Dekalb County meeting.
"So now my mindset is, 'Was the Middle Tennessee area where I was at the only region that was given the pamphlet?' Like why, why is that?" questioned Heard.
TSSAA could not confirm to NewsChannel 5 which meetings the image was shown in, leaving more questions for coaches like Heard who want to understand why their meeting was different.
"I'm not saying that I think TSSAA is racist, in no way shape or form. I would just like to understand why that picture, that diagram was shown to one section of coaches," Heard emphasized.
"Doing this job, doing this profession, you are looked at as a role model to some of these kids and it will be hard for me to look in the mirror at myself as a role model when I know that that was put in my face and I did nothing about it. That I let my culture down," explained Heard.
NFHS officials said they had the images made to help explain the rule that its rules committee hoped would make high school sports more inclusive.
"Even though this may be an unintentional deal that happened but still... we can learn from this we can grow from this. I think in a way that we have, because maybe it wasn't shown at the meeting after mine," said Heard. "But it just, it bothers me that it wasn't shown the meeting before mine either."
