This Season, Fights Among Players, Fans Leave Mark on the Game

‘There’s nothing I like better than a lively crowd, but sometimes things can turn ugly. If they go storming onto the floor, you’ve got mass chaos.’

--Val Popov, Villa Park Coach

‘When you take your team on the road, you shouldn’t have to be concerned with their safety. You shouldn’t have to be concerned with some maniacs coming out of the stands and clobbering one of your kids.’

--Mike Dinneen, St. Paul coach

Most spectators do not expect to see a fight when they attend a high school basketball game.

But a few thousand local fans have seen games disintegrate into punching and shoving matches this season, as episodes of violence on the basketball court took an upswing in Orange County.

On the other hand, most basketball players do not expect to see spectators pouring onto the court during the game. But several high school teams have been engulfed by volatile fans when disputes broke out this season.

“Things are getting out of hand these days, no question,” said Stan Thomas, an administrator with the Tustin Unified School District. “Recently, you’re seeing and hearing more about it.”

Villa Park Coach Val Popov said: “There does seem to be an overabundance of altercations. We’ve had a number of them in our league.

” . . . I don’t think we have a different kind of kid, but I think the crowds have been more into it this season, for one thing.

“There’s nothing I like better than a lively crowd, but sometimes things can turn ugly. If they go storming onto the floor, you’ve got mass chaos.”

More than a dozen games in the 1985-86 season in the county have been marred by outbreaks of fighting among players and fans.

“Athletes today are bigger, stronger and meaner and there’s more emphasis placed on winning,” said Jim Reames, coach at Foothill High School.

After an informal survey of 25 Orange County coaches, incidents were documented in the Century League (5), the Angelus League (3), the Empire League (2), the Sunset League (2) and the Sea View League (1).

These numbers reflect instances in which players got into fights that resulted in ejections or required intervention by coaches, officials or administrators, and often included fans.

Common sense may suggest that the teams in fights are those frustrated over poor seasons and their lack of success. But five of the teams involved in seven incidents were ranked among the county’s Top 10 teams.

In one situation, a player on the Sunset League champion Ocean View team reportedly bumped a referee during an argument in a hallway after a loss to Capistrano Valley in a Tournament of Champions game.

In another case, a player from Santa Ana, the Century League champion, allegedly head-butted and punched a Servite guard in the locker room after the Friars’ victory at the Katella Classic Dec. 28.

According to a letter that the Servite player’s parents wrote the CIF Southern Section office, their son’s nose was almost broken and emergency room fees cost $370.

Some coaches are disturbed by the increase of fighting, which so far has only resulted in a few black eyes and an occasional trip to the emergency room. Other coaches downplay its significance.

But an Angelus League game at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance 10 days ago brought into focus the potentially explosive nature.

With 3:46 to play in a close game, a dispute occurred and a group of spectators poured onto the court, where a full-fledged melee broke out, injuring three St. Paul players.

Guard Jeff Willis suffered a blow to the back of his head and another, and center Matt Willig was knocked to the floor and kicked in the face. Willis later required seven stitches in his scalp and Willig required 17 stitches in his face.

A third Swordsman, point guard John Scott, was hit in the head and knocked unconscious by a chair hurled out of the stands.

“From the distance and how hard it was thrown, it looked like it could have killed somebody,” said Dean Crowley, a Southern Section administrator.

The Southern Section is not alone in investigating the incident; the police are looking into filing charges against some of the perpetuators.

Bishop Montgomery elected to forfeit the game to St. Paul.

It is hardly the kind of memory high school days are supposed to be made of, but it is a scene the St. Paul players and their coach will not soon forget.

“It was frightening,” said St. Paul Coach Mike Dinneen. “When you take your team on the road, you shouldn’t have to be concerned with their safety. You shouldn’t have to be concerned with some maniacs coming out of the stands and clobbering one of your kids.”

Dinneen said there were no boosters and no security guards. Administrators? “None that were visible,” he said.

In Orange County, one administrator who took action to curb the potential for violence was Thomas. He was formerly principal at Foothill, which had a rowdy cheering section nicknamed “Reamers’ Screamers.”

“At Foothill, there was a group of kids I inherited called the ‘Screamers,” Thomas said. “I usually sat with them, or I had an assistant principal or highly credible football coach watch them.

“We always felt at Foothill that they could make as much noise as they wanted to. It was the unsportsmanlike conduct we worried about. . . . going out onto the court, throwing things on the court, that sort of thing.

“So yes, there were occasions when I pulled kids out of the stands and had to discipline them. But that had a good deterrent effect on the other students.

“Not every school has an administrator there (at basketball games). At Tustin Unified, an administrator is required to attend all such athletic events (for crowd control). That’s something our superintendent and school board feel very strongly about.

“At other districts, it might not be so well supervised and that could be part of the problem.”

At Katella High School, which always has had a large and enthusiastic following, some members of the booster club are issued jackets that say, “Crowd Supervision.” Coach Tom Danley believes just the sight of designated authorities does much to keep some fans in line.

An assertive and visible activities director, Norm Freed, enforces rules of conduct banning all “negative” cheers and banners. At one game this season, an opponent’s mascot was even requested to stop playfully mimicking the Katella mascots’ dance routine.

Additionally, the Knight athletic department hires security guards for 60% of the home games, Danley said, concentrating on those drawing the biggest crowds.

The problems in Orange County have not been nearly as serious as those at Bishop Montgomery, or in the Los Angeles City Section, where games are played in the afternoon under tight security. But several of the situations have demonstrated the same initial ingredients that escalated into a riot in Torrance.

“The kids seem to enjoy some type of violence in the stands,” Reames said. “It’s like entertainment with them.”

Popov agreed: “We had a near-riot at a wrestling match with Canyon last Thursday. Some people get the notion (sports events are) the place to go to have their party, and it’s not.”

After the brawl at the Feb. 6 wrestling match carried into the parking lot and had to be stopped by police, the following week’s Canyon-Villa Park basketball game was rescheduled for the afternoon and supervised by “administrators about every five feet,” said Popov.

Reames said: “The fans are looking for it. They kind of say, ‘Let’s go see a game, there might be something happening, there might be a fight.’

“The fans want to get into the action. Half of them don’t care about the game, they could care less who wins or loses, they just care about the action in the parking lot.”

The potential problems when fans rush the court were clear when student body celebration at Foothill ignited a brief fight Jan. 22 in a Century League game against Santa Ana.

With two seconds on the clock, Foothill’s Dave Rasmussen made a wonder shot from midcourt to win the game.

Rasmussen’s feat occurred right in front of the Saint bench. The exuberant crowd piled onto the floor before the Saints could collect themselves. Players and fans began shoving and swinging.

“If you saw 200 people charging up behind you, what would your natural reaction be?” asked Santa Ana Coach Greg Coombs.

Reames said: “The fans pushed everyone into their (Santa Ana’s) bench and they started throwing punches. I’d say that’s nobody’s fault because enough people got pushed into the bench and they kind of reacted. It was a unique situation.”

Two days later, the Saints were involved in a fight at the end of a game against Canyon at Santa Ana.

Although Canyon Coach Steve Sabins said: “It was strictly a one-way thing (on the Saints’ part),” a videotape of the game shows that a Canyon player forcefully fouled a Santa Ana player several times. The Saint player spun around and punched his opponent. The benches emptied as a general fight erupted.

One of the officials said that part of the responsibility for precipitating the fighting may have belonged to a Canyon assistant coach who loudly instructed his players to “foul them hard.”

One game later at Tustin, while play was stopped, a Saint threw the ball at an opponent. A Tustin player responded by pointing and making a comment from about 10 feet away. When the Tustin player walked by, the Santa Ana player hit him twice in the head. The Tustin bench cleared, although the players on the Santa Ana bench restrained themselves.

Santa Ana principal Gerald Arriola and the athletic staff benched the player who instigated the fight for the next game.

Coombs suggests that Tustin taunted the Saints during the game, half of which was officiated by one referee. O’Brien agrees that his player should not have pointed, but vigorously denies the allegation that his players taunted Santa Ana.

The Tillers leave the Century League next season and O’Brien says he does not plan to schedule any more games with Santa Ana. He holds a firm opinion on the season’s rash of fighting.

“We can’t tolerate it,” he said. “It is unacceptable.”

Some coaches feel the officials must play a major role in keeping order on the court. “Basketball is a very intense, emotional sport,” Popov said. “Tensions can mount. Sometimes kids do things they wouldn’t normally do. . . .

“The officials have to step in and do a bit more. Some of them have to be a bit more assertive and more controlled without becoming a focal point to the crowd.”