Charlotte private school cancels basketball program, demands money from parents

A group of parents at United Faith Christian Academy say the school is demanding payment to release student transcripts after the abrupt end of its basketball program for the 2024-2025 season. Last year, the United Faith Christian Academy basketball team won the state championship with a record of 25-3.

UFCA is one of the top private high school basketball teams in North Carolina. Brian McLaughlin’s son, Izaiah, is one of several seniors on the 11-man United Faith Christian Academy basketball team.

“He’s frustrated. He’s very sad,” McLaughlin said. “We were chasing a state championship this year. Last season, we had a very disappointing loss.”

The team has been to the state championship game three years in a row, attracting the attention of college recruiters. The team was set to begin preseason workouts this week.

“He had interest from two colleges that wanted to see him play,” McLaughlin said. “For United Faith to pull the rug out from under him as a parent is just tough.”

Coach Darrion Holloway spent six years with the team. He was the head coach for two years.

Holloway says he visited the school in late August to get an update after his emails and phone calls went unanswered. That’s when he says school leaders informed him of the program’s fate.

“A lot of it was financial, changing the culture, a little bit of that,” Holloway said. “We had a little bit of a hands-on approach to what exactly that means, and they told me they want everyone in the school to come first, education second, and sports third.”

Holloway says that after meeting with school officials, he asked when they would notify parents. He says the school never responded, and less than 24 hours later, his school email was deactivated.

Holloway decided to notify parents himself because he felt parents deserved to know. Parents pay up to $14,000 a year for their child’s tuition.

“We had kids who had been in school since seventh or eighth grade and they didn’t care about anything except graduating with the same people they started with,” Holloway said.

Parents say the school still hasn’t officially notified them about the basketball team’s removal, but they’ve been told they’ll have to pay a $1,000 fee and a portion of tuition to get their child out of school. While they’ve been working to get it removed, contacted Charlotte’s attorney, William Harding.

Harding sent a letter demanding that the school release student transcripts and refund tuition. Harding says the school had an obligation to notify parents in advance. The school’s sports website says, “Our ultimate goal is to provide our invaluable student-athletes with transformational experiences that will undoubtedly make a lasting positive impact on their lives and propel them toward outstanding achievement in their future endeavors.”

“At the very least, it was a misrepresentation issue. At the very least, it was fraud,” Harding said. “These students made a huge commitment to this school, one of my clients, his family moved from Maryland to come here because they believed in this school so much and they were given assurances.”

During an interview with WCCB Charlotte, Coach Holloway received an email from the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, which governs private school sports. The email says the NCISAA will drop a rule that would have forced transfer students to suspend athletic activities for 120 days.

Parents consider the email a partial victory because they say the school is still demanding a $1,000 fee and a portion of tuition to release their children’s transcripts.

“We’re asking them to let us take our kid somewhere else so he can have all the options available to him. He’s being recruited. This is his last year,” McLaughlin said.

WCCB Charlotte representatives attempted to contact the school via email and phone but received no response. Harding’s attorney says he also hasn’t received any communication from the school, but says he’s ready to take them to court if they don’t release the transcripts free of charge.