Fresno-area soccer coach calls El Dorado Hills student’s heckling ‘blatantly racist’
Saturday night’s Division I Northern California girls’ soccer final between Oak Ridge High School and visiting Buchanan of Clovis was clouded by “blatantly racist” heckling during the penalty kick shootout.
The incident left Buchanan as a school and community upset; Oak Ridge principal Aaron Palm said Sunday he was “heartbroken” by the heckling.
After more than 95 minutes of grueling play in El Dorado Hills, the championship game needed penalty kicks to determine a champion. But two instances of heckling from the Oak Ridge student section in an attempt to distract Buchanan players during the penalty kick attempts caused an uproar on the Bears’ sideline and in the rooting section.
A day later, Buchanan coach Jasara Gillette was even angrier and more disappointed about what sullied what was supposed to be a crowning moment for both programs in reaching the season’s final match.
With the shootout tied at 1-1, Buchanan’s Daisy Torres, who is Hispanic, stepped up to take her kick. Someone in the Oak Ridge student section made loud dog-barking noises in an otherwise silent stadium. Her shot missed over the crossbar. Ciara Wilson, who is Black, was heckled during her penalty kick attempt with what Gillette described as “gorilla” noises.
The Sacramento Bee reviewed video footage of the attempt and there was a noise loud and clearly similar to a gorilla. The Fresno State-bound Wilson made the shot and then immediately pointed to the Oak Ridge stands to a game official.
It appeared one person in the Oak Ridge stands made the noises. Palm, the Oak Ridge principal, said his school will investigate, “and get to the bottom of this.” Oak Ridge won 4-2 in the penalty kick shootout.
“When a quiet stadium is suddenly filled with gorilla noises made toward an African-American student, I don’t know that you get any more blatantly racist,” Gillette said in a phone call with The Bee. “It changed the atmosphere of everything. My players after that moment were visibly emotional. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Said Palm to The Bee, “One incident doesn’t define a school, but when something like this happens, it does. The words that come to mind are: Disgusted, embarrassed, saddened. We’re confident with a full investigation that we’ll be able to determine who it was. We’ll call every student that was in that section into the office, one at a time, and get to the bottom of this and hold them accountable.”
Palm said he apologized to Buchanan administrators, telling The Bee, “I have spoken to (the Buchanan) athletic director and principal and told them we’ll do everything we need to do. We’ll apologize to those families of the girls, to the community, to the school.”
He added, “We can’t make it right, but we need to do anything we can to try. There is no winner here. We walked off the field with a win, but not really.”
After the second incident of heckling, the game referees converged with both coaching staffs and Oak Ridge administrators. Oak Ridge head coach Rino Chimienti was issued a yellow card, since the heckling came from the Oak Ridge stands. Chimienti told The Bee that he heard a noise during the penalty kicks but wasn’t sure what it was and said he was too focused on the game. Upon learning of what the sound was, the coach expressed disappointment.
“When the referee told me what was said, I was disgusted by it,” Chimienti said Sunday. “We as a team and as a school don’t condone that. Some kids do and say stupid things, but whether (the heckler) was joking around or not, that’s not OK. Our administration is going to do their job, and once they do, I’m sure they’ll take proper measurements on that person. The sad thing is that one person out of the whole entire stadium can ruin it.”
While Gillette said the heckling was not a reflection of the Oak Ridge players and staff, the Buchanan coach stressed that more swift and severe measurements should have been taken by Oak Ridge administration and CIF officials on hand before the game was allowed to continue.
“If they’re not going to identify the student, the stands should have been cleared,” Gillette said. “The administration let the team, the players and their families down. By not taking a stand, by not doing anything, it said that continuing this game is more important.. It felt like when they did nothing and didn’t come check on us, our team should’ve walked away. We should’ve made a stand right there.”
Palm said there was a “sea of students” in the rooting section, making it a difficult task to find out at the game whom the heckler was. That’s where the investigation comes in. Chimienti said his Oak Ridge team approached the Buchanan team after the match to offer support for the heckled players.
“We have no clue, no idea who it was, but we don’t support that,” Chimienti said. “I wanted my players to go up to their players after the game and give them a hug and tell them we 120% have your back.”
Palm and his Oak Ridge administration said they otherwise take pride in their student rooting sections.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure that our sportsmanship is at the highest quality,” Palm said. “We have student leaders who lead the cheers. We meet with them every week, and 99 percent of the students do the right thing when cheering. It only takes one to ruin it. It’s just sad. It’s real. It happened, and we have to face the consequences. And we have more work to do (in regards to student-section sportsmanship).”
This story was originally published March 6, 2022 at 4:57 PM.