Del Campo coach alluded to calling ICE on students, lawsuit and district probe say
A former student-athlete has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against two former Del Campo High School football coaches and the San Juan Unified School District, accusing one coach of using racial slurs and making a discriminatory reference to reporting students from immigrant backgrounds to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The student, Riley Cochran-Hernandez, further alleged that the coaches — Jeff Remington and Matt Costa — endangered him and other football players by making them practice through serious injury and in extreme heat.
The 23-page complaint was filed Thursday in Sacramento federal court by San Francisco-based law firm Sweigart Murdock and seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as a jury trial.
The complaint alleges that Cochran-Hernandez was “subjected to years of discriminatory treatment” while he was a Del Campo athlete. Cochran-Hernandez is of Hispanic descent.
The lawsuit alleges that Del Campo coaches used a racial slur around players and ran unsafe practices in 100-degree-plus heat, including restricting water breaks and creating a hostile environment through “ritualized verbal abuse and humiliation.” It also alleges the coaches stripped him of his starting role on the team, costing him a shot at securing a full athletic scholarship.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what I went through while playing a sport they love,” Riley Cochran-Hernandez said in a statement provided by his lawyer. “I filed this lawsuit because, without my voice, I don’t believe there will be any change.”
Costa on Thursday declined to comment. Remington could not be immediately reached for comment.
San Juan Unified spokesperson Raj Rai said: “Creating and maintaining safe learning environments for students and staff is a top priority for the San Juan Unified School District. I am unable to comment on pending litigation.”
The complaint alleges that a muscle pull in Cochran-Hernandez’s leg in spring 2025 was not properly treated and was ignored by Del Campo coaches, resulting in nerve damage.
Costa, who took the helm at Del Campo in 2021, stepped away from coaching duties last September to deal with the declining health of his father, Joe, who died in February. Costa was placed on administrative leave after stepping down as the district looked into allegations of coaching misconduct, and later confirmed to The Sacramento Bee that he along with all other varsity coaches were let go at the end of the 2025 season.
Remington took over for Costa and was soon also placed on administrative leave as the investigation intensified. The varsity team finished 2-9, and Del Campo in February named Jordan Botha its next head coach.
Coaches in California are on year-to-year, at-will contracts and can be removed at any time for any reason.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what I went through while playing a sport they love,” Riley Cochran-Hernandez said in a statement provided by his lawyer. “I filed this lawsuit because, without my voice, I don’t believe there will be any change.”
What the lawsuit alleges
The lawsuit said that Cochran-Hernandez’s dream was to play on scholarship at the University of Michigan, one of the elite powerhouse programs in Division I athletics, and that football was his “lifeline.”
Cochran-Hernandez competed on the freshman team at Del Campo and on the junior varsity team as a sophomore in 2023. He did not play football as a junior during the 2024 season because, the complaint states, he wanted to “focus on his mental health, which was in poor shape because of how he was treated.”
The suit alleges that “despite his lifelong love for football and his dedication to the sport, Cochran-Hernandez “suffered years of abuse at the hands of two members of the coaching staff: Coach Remington and Coach Costa.”
The suit continued, “From (Cochran-Hernandez’s) early days on the team, Coach Costa continuously sidelined him and diminished his contributions to the team, ignoring his exemplary performance when he was allowed to play.”
The suit alleges that the coaches retaliated by stripping Cochran-Hernandez of his starting job, removing him from the team as punishment and costing him a chance at a full athletic scholarship, thus denying him his dreams.
What school district’s investigation found
The lawsuit follows a formal complaint Cochran-Hernandez and his family submitted to San Juan Unified at the end of July.
A copy of the school district’s investigation report, included as an attachment to the filed lawsuit, shows that the district’s legal compliance coordinator Sterling Williams on Sept. 23 concluded: “The preponderance of evidence demonstrates that (Remington and Costa’s) leadership of the Del Campo football program has been detrimental to student safety and well-being.”
The district compliance coordinator’s investigation substantiated several of the claims. These included medical negligence, use of racial slurs and an “inappropriate immigration comment” made by Remington; physical punishment and inappropriate rituals used by Costa; and intimidation, harassment, verbal abuse, retaliation, exclusion from a team trip and inadequate hydration on the part of both coaches.
Other claims including those categorized as physical assault — one stating that each of the coaches pushed a student and that Remington grabbed one student by the neck — were not substantiated by the district’s review but were reiterated in Cochran-Hernandez’s lawsuit.
The compliance coordinator’s report found that Costa and Remington’s actions violated district policies on bullying.
“Immediate action is necessary to mitigate ongoing harm, ensure compliance with District policies, and restore a safe and supportive environment for student-athletes,” Williams wrote.
Williams called upon the school’s human resources department to “follow the appropriate mechanisms for discipline in response to the sustained allegations.”
“Multiple witnesses, including coaches and players, confirmed that a culture of fear and a ‘code of silence’ existed within the football program, which discouraged students and staff from speaking out against inappropriate behavior,” wrote Williams. “This corroboration underscores that the conduct was not isolated but reflective of a broader issue within the football program.”
Use of racial slur and ‘ICE’ comment
Summaries of Costa and Remington’s responses to district investigators were included in the compliance coordinator’s report.
Remington denied using a racial slur in any form. He “referenced a team culture requiring players who used the (slur) to perform 20 push-ups,” the existence of which, according to the compliance coordinator, Costa corroborated.
But Williams, the compliance coordinator, wrote that Cochran-Hernandez along with two other football players and two assistant coaches gave accounts of Remington saying the slur.
A former Del Campo assistant coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation, said language during practices could be “salty” but disputed the use of racial slurs, particularly if Costa was present.
That former coach also disputed Cochran-Hernandez’s status on the team, saying he was never a starter and was not a college prospect and that, when slowed by the leg injury, would run out to engage in drills. Cochran-Hernandez did not record a statistic as a varsity player at Del Campo.
On one occasion, described in the lawsuit as happening during a team activity in spring 2025, Remington “made a comment referencing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a monetary figure of ‘$1,500,’” an apparent reference to false rumors circulating at that time that those who reported illegal immigrants to ICE could receive cash rewards around that amount.
The lawsuit stated that this comment “was made to a group that included Hispanic and immigrant students.”
Williams wrote that Remington admitted to making the ICE comment.
“(Remington) explained that the statement was made in response to several Afghan students who were mocking them during practice and was intended as a general remark rather than a targeted threat,” the compliance coordinator wrote, noting that such a statement represents a hostile environment for students “regardless of intent.”
Health and safety concerns
The former student-athlete further alleged that Remington and Costa “forced students to perform bear crawls in 110-degree heat until their hands were burned” and “subjected players to ritualized humiliation designed to demean” during practice.
The compliance report supported the allegation that the bear crawl drill “was done under extreme and unsafe conditions, resulting in physical harm to students.” A player provided the compliance coordinator with photographs of his hands after the drill.
Cochran-Hernandez alleges he pulled a muscle in early March 2025, according to the lawsuit.
He obtained a note from his primary care physician asking for a week of rest until he could receive an MRI to confirm the severity of the injury.
“Coach Remington criticized other players who took time off to recover from quad injuries and dismissed Riley’s injury in front of his teammates,” Cochran-Hernandez’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “Coach Remington told Riley that if he did not practice, he would be removed from the team.”
Cochran-Hernandez continued practicing but, after a game of seven-on-seven, endured pain so severe he could not walk. He returned to the doctor “and learned that the muscle tear now extended from his knee to close to the top of the leg,” the lawsuit says.
Further, the district’s investigation determined Remington and Costa limited students to one to two water breaks during each practice. This increased to five to six breaks per practice once the coaches became aware of the investigation, one player and one assistant coach told the compliance coordinator.
Costa’s parents wrote letter to Del Campo about their own abuse
The tension between Cochran-Hernandez’s father Darrin Cochran and Costa spilled into the stands during at least one game. Costa’s parents, Maggie and Joe Costa, were verbally accosted by Darrin Cochran, before and during a nonleague game against El Dorado of Placerville on Aug. 29, two sources who witnessed the scene told The Bee, both of them declining to use their name out of fears of retribution.
The game was at Del Campo in Fair Oaks. Maggie and Joe Costa each wrote two-page, handwritten letters to the Del Campo administration, detailing their account of the verbal abuse. It was the last time Costa’s parents saw their son coach.
It was also the last time Costa and Del Campo won a game. Del Campo defeated El Dorado 41-28 to move to 2-0 on the season but lost the remaining nine games.