Basketball coach fired after his players threw tortillas at losing team in California

The head coach of a high school basketball team in California has been fired after a tortilla-throwing incident during a regionalchampionship game.

Coronado Unified School District’s board voted Tuesday to fire Coronado High School coach JD Laaperi after some of his players threw tortillas at Orange Glen High School players at Saturday’s game, KGTV reported.

Coronado’s basketball team captain, Wayne McKinney, spoke first at the public meeting, according to the station.

“You have to be sensitive to how they believe it looks, and throwing tortillas at a predominantly Hispanic school doesn’t look good,” McKinney said. “You kind of have to look at both perspectives. I’m a black man, and if I was at another school and somebody was throwing stuff that seemed racist like bananas or watermelons, I would be pretty upset.”

“This was a racial incident no matter how it was cut,” Yusef Miller, a community activist, told the board, NBC San Diego reported. “I don’t care who stands there and says otherwise. I don’t care if they are Black, white or Latino. I don’t care what race they are. This was wrong and unjust. I don’t care where it comes from.”

The board said three more weeks will be required to investigate the incident, which is also being investigated by the California Interscholastic Federation, the Coronado Police Department and the Escondido Union High School District, according to the station.

Saturday’s game, for the CIF Southern California Boys Basketball Division Regional 4-A Championship, went into overtime and was eventually won by Coronado High School, 60-57. Coaches from both schools got into a heated argument, with a video on social media reportedly showing at least two Coronado players throwing tortillas, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Laaperi was also accused of cursing at an Orange Glen coach, saying “That’s why you don’t talk (expletive). Get your kids and get the (expletive) out of here,” witnesses said, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Laaperi tweeted Sunday that a “community member brought tortillas and distributed them which was unacceptable and racist in nature. I do not condone this behavior. Coronado High School does not condone this behavior and is already taking appropriate action.”

The Coronado Police Department said the man brought the tortillas to the game has not been identified, CBS8 reported.

Orange Glen High’s student population is 87% Latino, according to U.S. News & World Report. Coronado High School’s student population is 59% white.

Before the board meeting on Tuesday, parents and other people gathered outside Coronado High and some demanded that Laaperi be fired, according to the station.

“He cussed out our coach — backing away like a coward,’” Andres Rivera, whose son plays on Orange Glen’s team, told the station.

This story was originally published June 23, 2021 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Basketball coach fired after his players threw tortillas at losing team in California."