Sportsmanship

By Ed Piper

My brother and I grew up as kids playing baseball and basketball. We loved sports, and we often played over-the-line baseball during the summers in our spare time when school was out--it wasn't just at games that adults organized. We truly loved working at hitting, our glovework, teamwork.

At rare times, we were the ones who witnessed the parent of a player on an opposing team during youth baseball making a fool out of himself. Mr. J---- was one I remember, being loud in the crowd, his son not allowed to play the whole game or somesuch. Just making a fool out of himself. My parents, in sharp contrast, never said a word during games, the "silent" ones behind the backstop. They weren't brought up playing sports, especially my dad--the family story was that he delivered three newspaper routes as a kid during the Depression, so no time was left for sports and so he encouraged us to go all out and enjoy sports in a way he missed as a young person growing up.

We weren't--and aren't--"holier than thou". We just have always participated in, and watched sports without any of the baiting of opponents or referees or trying to stick it to opponents when we're winning--or worse, whining and complaining when the game isn't going our way. Part of that, I realize, is that our mother wouldn't let us play youth or high school football because of the injuries her brother suffered in ice hockey. That's what we're told, and so we always knew that other sports were an option--not football. Football and soccer, I have to admit from my experience, sometimes are the scene of less-than-exemplary sportsmanship, especially in the stands.

But I like covering football. I have relished covering La Jolla High's football team, during a lot of years when things were pretty thin, and only now, in the past four years, when Coach Tyler Roach has brought the program back from the brink of nearly closing down due to the lack of players coming out, to a CIF Division 3 San Diego Section championship and Southern California championship in the fall of 2019 (before COVID hit). I have covered and continue to cover all the other sports at the school through my blog here and in the pages of the La Jolla Village News (when that news site is paying for sports articles outside of the COVID period), whether it be girls soccer, boys and girls tennis, or badminton.

So, giving credit to Coach Roach and the program for its successful status and its ability to win yet another Eastern League title in this COVID-delayed season, I didn't feel too good about the second quarter of the Saturday, April 10 victory over Christian High played at Granite Hills High School. I have delayed writing about anything following that game, but I finally realized I'm going to have to move ahead and continue writing if I'm going to cover football and the other sports before June is over. In that game, quarterback Jackson Stratton, who was having a fabulous season in his junior year, was ejected midway through the second quarter for multiple instances of unsportsmanlike behavior, including a warning for taunting early in the game after a long pass he completed downfield, then another instance in which he was carrying on the same behavior nearer the LJHS bench but it was ignored by game officials. Finally, a second incident occurred that he was held accountable for, and he was sent out.

As soon as he was ejected, the La Jolla crowd began to boo and carried on the rest of the game against the officials. Other individual players and staff, who had been making comments prior to the kickout, then geared up their words and likewise conducted themselves during the remainder of the second quarter in a way that made me feel this was the last place I wanted to be. Football and soccer, as I've said, both sometimes bottom out to unbecoming behavior like this that, frankly, doesn't take place in other sports in nearly the vociferousness, not to mention the profanity (there was plenty on the sidelines) in my two decades of and covering high school sports.

I was glad to get in my Lyft ride as the final seconds ticked down to the final 37-7 La Jolla win that sealed the Vikings' back-to-back league titles on a previously looked-forward-to night that just didn't deliver, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

To his credit, after Jackson was talked to on the sidelines, he pulled himself together and worked with backup quarterback Justin Scully to further warm him up and give some pointers as Scully took over a difficult role with no warning from the second quarter on. Roach, to his credit after the stormy second quarter, La Jolla barely holding onto its lead 14-7 at halftime against an overmatched but suddenly-aroused Christian team, gave his team a stern talking to during the intermission, imploring them to get it together and pull the game out without any further incidents. The Vikings did so, first relying on super kicker Devin Bale for field goals, then as the dam broke piling up additional touchdowns over the now-deflated Patriots to land the overwhelming 30-point final decision.

The La Jolla program can be proud that, as Roach told them, "I told you you were going to face adversity at some point, and here it is," and the players overcame it. At no point did other Viking player leaders, including linebacker/running back Max Smith and receiver/back Diego Solis, exhibit less than full sportsmanship. They just came to play, and stayed away from the other distractions. Hopefully, a lesson is learned. It was reported that, with only one game remaining in the shortened COVID season this Friday, April 16, at home against San Diego High, that LJHS would appeal the suspension that would keep Stratton on the sidelines. It is unknown what the chances of that appeal would be.