OKLAHOMA CITY – Four years after starting a girls’ varsity basketball program, the Oklahoma City Lady Griffins made history, clinching their first championship last February.
Two days later, the high-schoolers made history again when they contested the victory in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship.
“I needed to know in my heart, for certain, that we were the champions so that I could sleep that night,” said Brendan King, head coach of the Lady Griffins.
After celebrating with the players, King went home and reviewed the game footage. He tallied the score twice. Both times his team came up short, losing by one point to the opposing team, Apache High School. A scoreboard error during the game had given the Griffins a one-point advantage – and the district championship trophy.
For King, that discovery was heartbreaking. So was the reality of his next move: breaking the news to his players.
The following day he asked the captain to send a text to the team’s group chat. They planned to meet at the school before the end of the weekend.
“The girls’ ears immediately perked up, like, ‘We don’t meet on a Sunday?’ They said, ‘Something has to be going on,'” King told CBN News.
“I thought somebody died,” recalled senior Ellie Cheng, prompting laughter from her teammates as she described her initial reaction.
Fellow senior Bindi Paradee had a similar response. “My first thought was like Ellie said, ‘Who died?’ Or somebody got hurt really bad or something,” Paradee added.
When King explained the scoring error and the reality of the loss, the team did not hesitate. The players unanimously agreed to challenge the outcome and return the trophy.
“Of course, there’s hesitation (and) there’s grief,” said senior Maya Beasley. “But we had played the game, and there’s nothing that could take away that hard work and all of our teamwork.”
“But we never had won in the first place, if that makes sense? So, there was a coming to terms with, ‘Oh, we didn’t win.’ But there was never like, ‘Oh, but we can still keep the trophy,’ because why would we do that?”
For the players, the decision was about more than good sportsmanship. It was also about staying true to a higher call.
“It didn’t benefit us in the way that we would have been able to continue,” Paradee explained. “But it did benefit us in showing the world that this was really the good thing to do – and the thing that glorifies God most.”
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The experience has even taught them about the importance of finding humor in heartbreak.
“I also feels like the trophy wouldn’t have been valuable if every time we saw it sitting on the shelf we thought, ‘Oh wait. We actually lost that game!'” said Ellie King, drawing laughter from her teammates.
Breaking from precedent, the state governing board for high school athletics granted the team’s appeal. Hours after the girls’ extraordinary decision, King and his wife stunned the opposing team when they personally delivered the trophy and explained the error.
The Griffin’s decision was covered by CBS News and quickly spread to other outlets like The New York Times and The Guardian, reaching audiences around the world.
“It’s kind of a running joke around our student body – like another day, another interview,” King told CBN News.
To understand why the team made that noble call requires looking beyond the basketball court.
The Lady Griffins represent the students at The Academy of Classical Christian Studies located in downtown Oklahoma City.
The high school campus shares space with a local church. Yet inside – apart from the school uniforms and beginning and ending each day in prayer – it looks like a typical school.
But The Academy is part of a growing movement known as Classical Christian Education – a three-stage developmental curriculum rooted in the Bible and the traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. It aims to shape both intellect and character.
This year, Forbes put a spotlight on the rise of CCE’s methodology and its impact on the educational market.
“Parents know what their calling is – and their duty towards their children,” said Nathan Carr, headmaster of The Academy of Classical Christian Studies and author of Festive School and the Student Prayer Book. “They see classical and Christian education as among the most effective partnerships – giving [students] memory; helping them be practiced in virtue; and baptizing their imagination into something true, good, beautiful, and eternal.”
Parents Casey and Sarah Shutt agree. They have two sons currently enrolled at The Academy. Their daughter, Cora – now a college freshman – was part of the Lady Griffins team that voted to appeal last season’s championship win.
“Our daughter can look back and tell us now that she’s in college, like, ‘These are the things I really appreciated. I’m thankful for this education,'” explained Sarah Shutt. “That is a blessing as a parent.”
Educators say the goal of Classical Christian Education at The Academy isn’t solely focused on academic success, but shaping students’ values and affections in line with the kingdom of God.
“It gives them a higher target in life,” Casey Shutt explained. “Virtue is something the school speaks of quite a bit.”
Those lessons and values are what the students take with them beyond the classroom and into other arenas like clubs and sports.
Since the story of the Lady Griffins went viral, the team has gained a growing fan base.
“I’m thankful the story is out there, because I hope it’s encouraging to other coaches or other teams out there that there’s so many bigger life lessons than just wins and losses,” said Coach King. “I never thought it would get to this point. Multiple social media messages that have come my way – then the letters started to show up to the school – check donations to the girls’ basketball program.”
“I just received one yesterday from a grandpa in West Virginia who said he would love for his grandkids to play for me one day,” he reflected with emotion.
Headmaster Carr believes the story also struck a cultural nerve.
“A culture whose favorite hashtag is ‘winning’ needed a new story of what true winning is,” he told CBN News.
“I think it resonates that it’s the right thing to do,” Casey Shutt added. “If this happens in this little high school setting, maybe there’s hope beyond in the political realm or the business world or in all these other spheres of life?”
For the seniors of the team, they’re not letting the attention get to their heads. Instead, they’re thinking about the future and how to incorporate some of the lessons they’ve learned in school.
“Growing up in The Academy has given me almost like a golden standard of community that I want to hold to – like a standard that I will want to always work up to,” Cheng said. “Or maybe even improve on.”
Win or lose, these good sports have become role models, showing how integrity can be the greatest victory of all.
