Umps tell Black NC softball player to cut her hair during a game. 'It was humiliating'

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Umps tell Black NC softball player to cut her hair during a game. ‘It was humiliating’

BY STEVE WISEMAN
MAY 12, 2021 07:01 PM,

DURHAM

On April 19, Nicole Pyles faced a choice of removing her hair beads or abandoning her Hillside High School softball teammates in the middle of their game against Durham rival Jordan High.

The demand came from the game’s two umpires, who were following a strict interpretation of a National Federation of State High School Associations rule that allows players to use bobby pins, barrettes and hair clips but prohibits plastic visors, bandannas and hair beads.

In a Facebook live video of the game, a plea can be heard from the Hillside dugout: “Does anyone have scissors?”

Pyles, who is Black, opted to let her teammates cut her hair to remove the beads so she could continue playing in her team’s senior night game. But she wasn’t happy about it and still isn’t.

“It was humiliating,” Nicole Pyles said in a Zoom interview with The News & Observer on Wednesday. “Why do I have to take away from myself just to play this game where we are actually doing well? I’m embarrassed because you pick on me in front of all these people for no reason.”

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