CALGARY—Youth basketball players from a First Nation in Alberta will have to play in separate gyms from other teams at the upcoming Stampede Showdown tournament after referees with the Calgary Basketball Officials Association refused to supervise their games.

The dispute erupted over an incident the referees’ association won’t describe in detail, but which it says raised concerns about the safety of its members. Meanwhile, the situation has drawn allegations of racism from a coach for two of the five affected Kainai Nation teams.

Truman Soop said he was initially told Saturday by event organizer Tony Tan that all Kainai’s teams had been removed from the tournament, which runs July 5 to July 7 in Calgary.

Referees for such games come from the Calgary Basketball Officials Association (CBOA), which represents and trains basketball officials in the city. In a Facebook post describing the incident, Soop said the CBOA’s decision made it next to impossible in his view to run the tournament.

About 40 Kainai players, including Soop’s nephew, were heartbroken to hear they’d been removed, he told Star Calgary on Tuesday.

“These kids were crying when we told them we weren’t going anymore.”

Tan said the CBOA’s decision came after the head coach of the Kainai Nation’s high school girls’ team — who isn’t involved with the Kainai Basketball Association — complained about a series of referee calls at a past game. (Four of the Kainai teams are from the Kainai Basketball Association, while the fifth is from Blood Tribe Recreation & Parks.)

This coach was later ejected. A mix of other coaches and fans filed statements to the CBOA about the refereeing seen at the game.

“They put together this package and they sent it to CBOA for review,” Soop said. “And then CBOA came back and said: You guys are now banned.”

In a statement, the CBOA said it experienced an undescribed incident earlier this year that it felt had jeopardized the safety of its referees, although it did not provide any specifics or respond to followup questions asking for further details.

“Our concerns over the incident were not limited to one individual,” the statement read. “As it could not be guaranteed that no individuals from the earlier incident would not be at the Stampede Showdown tournament, we felt it prudent not to be involved.”

In a Facebook post, Soop expressed his opinion that the situation represented an act of racism.

“How can an organization as large as CBOA ban an entire Native community due to a dispute with one individual?” Soop wrote.

On Tuesday, CBOA officials said the Kainai teams would be allowed to play, but the association’s referees still wouldn’t be supervising them, nor would the players be competing in the main gym, according to Tan.

Tan is hiring private referees from outside Calgary, such as Lethbridge and Red Deer, to come in and supervise the Kainai games. He said some were “sick to their stomach” when they heard about the situation.

“They’re just kids between 8 and 15 years old,” Tan said of the Kainai Nation players. “I don’t get it. What have they done?”

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