HOWELL, MI -- Shocking tweets celebrating a "white" team's victory erupted Thursday following the Howell boys basketball win over Grand Blanc.

Several students in Howell are now facing disciplinary action, according to the high school principal.

Grand Blanc lost 54-49 to Howell in the Class A regional final at Linden High School Thursday.

Among the Twitter messages posted after the game the night of March 13:

"Not only did we beat Grand Blanc but we're all white. Howell's the definite winner tonight."

"All hail white power. #HitlerIsMyDad"

"Tonight was probably one of the most racists nights of my life. I heard so many slurs and expressions. I also said a few things..."

Hastags with other tweets included #kkk, #lightthehcross, #rosaparks, #wewhite.

Howell High School Principal Jason Schrock said he's well aware of the tweets, and disciplinary action has been taken against those involved.

"The school has responded to each instance and is moving forward," he said. He would not say what disciplinary action was taken.

Grand Blanc has both black and white players.

Grand Blanc Schools Superintendent Norman Abdella said although it's "hard to believe that the racial banality expressed through those messages even exists in this day and age," he believes that Howell administrators will aptly handle the situation.

"It would be totally unfair to judge a district or a school based on the actions of individual students or supporters," he said in an email statement to The Flint Journal. "I have great confidence that no one in authority within the Howell School District would ever encourage or condone these types of sentiments and expect that they will effectively deal with this situation internally."

Schrock said he hopes both communities understand that what he believes were knee-jerk reactions of a few teens don't speak for all of Howell and that the town and school are continuously trying to work themselves out of a rut that history has dug for them.

"A life lesson can be learned for these students without dragging a community's reputation through the mud," he said.

Howell was known as the home of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon Robert E. Miles, who died in 1992. He lived in nearby Cohoctah Township, where he hosted KKK cross burnings.

Robyn Lefebvre, a lifelong Howell resident, said she is well aware of, although disappointed in, the town's racist history, adding that it was the home for several Ku Klux Klan leaders in the past.

"(One of the alleged KKK leaders) died a while back, and I was hoping that whole thing would die along with him," she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head when she heard of the tweets. "It's very hard and frustrating when people can judge a whole town on the acts of just a few people."

Schrock said school administrators were made aware of the posts hours after they were created and were preparing to take disciplinary action first thing Friday morning, when they found the tweets had already been replaced with apologies.

Among the tweeted apologies:

"All the (expletive) that was said tonight was not OK, and for that I apologize."

"To whoever still didn't see my apology last night, I really am sorry."

"It was a joke."

In Grand Blanc, a group of teens at the high school said they were astonished by the tweets.

"So if their team beat us, it's got nothing to do with race," said Shelby Asher, 15, a sophomore. On the online apology, Asher said, "They should have done it in person."

"It's kind of a cop-out," said Allyn Pierson, 16, a sophomore.

Grand Blanc basketball senior guard Kevon Miller, said the tweets didn't surprise him. He said Howell students hurled racial slurs at the Grand Blanc boys basketball team the previous two times the teams played, particularly during Grand Blanc's Jan. 21 game at Howell.

Miller said he heard the N-world hurled from the Howell student section "a couple times" during Thursday night's game at Linden High School, at one point prompting a referee to walk over and say something to the individual. He said nothing came from the Howell basketball team. In fact, he knows senior center Tyler Johnson personally.

"It's frustrating, but you've got to put it to the side," said Miller.

Schrock said he hopes the community is forgiving of the students' actions, as they already felt bad about what they'd said, and allowing screen grabs of the tweets to "blow up" on social media will only perpetuate the problem.

"Let us be able to work with the students who made these mistakes, who have self-corrected. We have addressed it with them and their families and we'd like to move on and focus on the positive things," Schrock said. "Unfortunately, even though both teams played their hearts out and worked hard all season, there were students on both sides that did some egregious things that they regret and those actions have started to overshadow the positive things that both sides are accomplishing."

Schrock added that both faculty and students between the two schools have had great working relationships in the past, and hopes that a few thoughtless posts on social websites don't interfere with that.

Nick Simon, now in his second season as head coach of the Howell boys basketball team, said the racist tweets sent out by students Thursday night following his team's win over Grand Blanc aren't an accurate reflection of the area.

"It's sad," Simon said. "We definitely aren't going to let one or two people's statements speak for a community, or our athletics or our student body. We have 2,800 kids and it's unfortunate that one or two can misrepresent us so much."

Howell is scheduled to play Mt. Pleasant in the Class A boys basketball quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Davison High School.

- Flint Journal Writer Aaron McMann contributed to this report