REGINA—A judge has denied a couple’s request for an injunction that would have allowed their daughter to play in a Regina high school team’s final football game of the season.

The Ounsworth family decided to take legal action after their daughter, Hannah, didn’t make the football team at Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School.

Hannah, a Grade 12 student, and her parents believe she didn’t make the team because she’s a girl.

The Ounsworths filed a complaint with the province’s human rights commission last summer, but decided to seek an injunction because the commission wasn’t able to review the matter before the season ended.

The heart of the argument was whether incorporating Hannah into the team’s roster just before the last game would cause irreparable harm to her or to the team.

The judge decided granting the injunction at this time “would not undo the alleged harm” to the girl by the team’s refusal to let her play.

“Hannah stands to gain little by an injunction that cannot be compensated for in damages if her complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is successful,” Justice J. E. McMurtry wrote in her decision released Friday.

“Thus the balance of convenience favours the defendants and the application for an injunction is denied”

The city final was to be played Friday night.

Nicholas Cann, lawyer for the school board, argued during the injunction hearing that adding Hannah to the team at such a late date would cause a distraction for the players and disrupt their chemistry.

Hannah has experience playing in the Regina Minor Football organization. She has said passion for the sport runs in her family, including her two younger sisters.

Damon and Chantal Ounsworth said they were hesitant when their daughter approached them about trying out for the team.

“We understand and respect that people have opinions of girls playing contact sports, specifically tackle football,” Chantal Ounsworth said when Hannah was cut.

There has never been a girl on the LeBoldus team.

The Ounsworths say something didn’t sit right with them when their daughter didn’t make the team, one of five players who were cut. Head coach John Foord referred her to the elite woman’s tackle football team, the Regina Riot.

Hannah has said she was set up to fail during tryouts, because she was put in a position on the defensive line usually filled by one of the biggest players on the team. She stands five-foot-10 and weighs 150 pounds.

In followup meetings with coaching staff, the Ounsworths were told Foord liked to cap his roster at 46, they said. The 2017-18 LeBoldus yearbook shows 51 players.

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The Regina High Schools Athletic Association’s website says there is no cap to roster size in high school football.

Hannah has said she wants to be afforded the same opportunity as boys, both above and below her size and level of experience.

The LeBoldus Golden Suns are regarded as one of the most competitive high school teams in Regina. They have many city and provincial championships under their belt.