LJ b BB: Labeta

By Ed Piper

John Labeta, Assistant Commissioner of the CIF San Diego Section, said, "We will look into it," responding to a reporter's phone call about students chanting "F--- La Jolla" repeatedly during the third quarter of the Mission Bay-La Jolla boys basketball game Jan. 17 at La Jolla High.

Labeta said that Steve Giusti, head of the City Conference, will follow up.

This reporter's question, in a voicemail message left for Labeta Tues., Jan. 21, concerned the procedure when there is unsportsmanlike conduct at an interscholastic game. The CIF administrator returned the call at noon Wed., Jan. 22.

The cited incident, of numerous Mission Bay High students repeating the profane chant, was the worst instance of unsportsmanlike conduct in this reporter's memory, spanning his 16 years of photographing and writing about La Jolla High sports for this blog, for the La Jolla Village News, and previously for the La Jolla Light.

The play on the court during the Western League game between the two schools was extremely physical. Before the La Jolla-Cathedral Catholic girls water polo at the latter school Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 21, LJHS teacher/coach Tom Atwell, who attended the basketball game, stated to me, "I was amazed at the physicality that the officials allowed in the game."

In addition, on one occasion, a player from Coach Marshawn Cherry's Buccaneers walked over to Christian Gamboa, a guard for the Vikings, and put shoulder-to-shoulder in a confrontational posture as if to "mad-dog" Gamboa. If not just a gesture of attempted intimidation, possibly the attempt was to provoke Gamboa into fighting.

Christian, a returning junior for Coach Paul Baranowski's La Jolla team, chose not to react and allowed the gesture to pass.

At the conclusion of the game, which was close at halftime, with a five-point difference, but which ended in a rout for the Bucs, 50-30, several members of the visiting team walked out toward the middle of the court and extended their hands in the air and looked directly at the center of the La Jolla High student rooting section. It was an inappropriate gesture of unsportsmanlike conduct, as if to say, "So, there."

All of this behavior goes against CIF's stated regulations on behavior at interscholastic athletic events. Many, if not most, member schools have posters in their gyms and at their football fields stating the sportsmanship guidelines.

That is the worst ending gesture I remember seeing in my 16 years of covering LJHS sports.

Paula Conway, Athletic Director at La Jolla High, received a phone call regarding the behavior at the game. She said that she had left the gym earlier to be at an activity for her children. Apparently, LJHS principal Charles "Chuck" Podhorsky was present at the game.

But no one took action to silence or warn the students after the chant using the "F-bomb" repeatedly.