What Buchanan girls soccer is saying after CIF punishes opponent for fan’s racist heckle
Buchanan High girls soccer coach Jasara Gillette is disappointed the California Interscholastic Federation didn’t take a stiffer stand against Oak Ridge over a fan’s racist heckling during a championship match.
The CIF said Thursday that Oak Ridge is being placed on probation as punishment for the racist heckling at the Northern California Division I final in El Dorado Hills earlier this month. The probation is for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year and through 2023-2024.
“I don’t understand it,” Gillette said. “You have Coronado who has something happen after their game and they have consequences. And then you have what happened to us and to me (the punishment is) a slap on the wrist. I’m very disappointed.”
Gillette was referencing when the CIF stripped Coronado High of a Southern California regional boys basketball championship over a postgame tortilla-throwing incident against Orange Glen in 2021.
Coronado was placed on probation through the 2023-2024 school year and not allowed to host any postseason games. In addition, administrators, coaches and student-athletes must attend a sportsmanship workshop and administrators must receive game management training.
In the Buchanan-Oak Ridge incident, Buchanan senior Ciara Wilson was attempting a penalty kick when an Oak Ridge student in the stands made monkey sounds. The student was later identified and disciplined, according to Oak Ridge officials.
Except for the stripped title, Oak Ridge was given the same as Coronado, such as completing an annual sportsmanship workshop/training during the probationary period for all Oak Ridge administrators, coaches and students.
Any Buchanan/Oak Ridge soccer matches will be hosted by Buchanan in Clovis and Oak Ridge administrators must complete game-management training prior to the section championships. Oak Ridge is encouraged to engage with the administration at Buchanan to begin the process of developing a positive relationship between the school’s communities.
Oak Ridge officials must submit a plan of action to how they will comply with sanctions and strategies they choose to implement.
Buchanan coach: ‘I just got angry’
“I was hoping they would make a stand to say, ‘Hey, this wasn’t OK,’ because that night it was OK and so I was hoping they would reflect, look at it and recognize that there were things that weren’t done that should’ve been done,” Gillette said.
“I was hoping they would make a statement like, ‘Hey we recognize that this situation was not OK.’ Whether it’s not hosting state playoff games there for two years ... anything, I mean probation? I don’t know.
“The CIF never reached out to Cierra and asked if she was OK. The CIF official that was there that day, the referees, nobody there. To me, what it looks like is the referee was covering his butt because he’s the one to me who didn’t control that ending of the game and he’s just trying to put it on, ‘Oh, no one really said anything.’
“I got mad about a few things that they said I didn’t protest, but I did protest, but it wasn’t formal, which I don’t know then what is a formal protest besides me saying it. Then they chose to go with what the referee said instead of me because there is no sound on the video where I’m clearly upset. The way they painted the picture was different than the way it happened and it looks like a lot of the evidence they were getting is from the Oak Ridge side, which I knew they didn’t think that there was a problem because I was there. Just disappointment. When I first was disappointed and a little bit of shock then I just got angry.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 4:22 PM.
