Palmdale Nightmare, One Year Later : Prep football: Team meets Saugus tonight. In last year’s game, players attacked officials.

The night of Oct. 13, 1989, is one that people associated with the Palmdale High football program have tried to forget. It was a night when a game against CIF Southern Section Golden League rival Saugus became a violent nightmare.

Tonight, these schools will meet again at Palmdale, with the winner gaining a berth in the Division I playoffs. Palmdale is also hoping that a victory will wipe away the memories of a year ago.

If only it were that easy.

Before a capacity crowd at College of the Canyons in Valencia, last year’s game started like any other heated battle between bitter rivals. Palmdale dominated play but couldn’t score. However, as the scoreless game droned on, frustration began to grow . . . until finally it exploded.

With 7:40 remaining, Palmdale senior defensive back Darius Wilson attacked back judge Brad Woolley after three consecutive personal foul penalties were called against the Falcons.

“I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!” Woolley said he heard before the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Wilson slammed him to the ground.

In the ensuing brawl, a second official was attacked, and eventually several Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were needed at the scene to restore order. The game was suspended, and Wilson, 18, was placed in handcuffs and jailed on a misdemeanor battery charge. Two other Palmdale players, senior Mike Warren and junior Keith Bennett, faced the same charges later in the week.

What triggered the attack is still uncertain, but rulings after the incident awarded Saugus a forfeit victory and placed Palmdale on two years of probation in the Golden League. The three Palmdale players were expelled from school and told they could no longer participate in athletics in the Southern Section.

Wilson, now a defensive back at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, blames the officials for the wild ending of the game.

“They didn’t have control of the game from the beginning,” said Wilson, who was sentenced to spend 488 hours in community service. “You knew something was going to happen from the very start.

“I should have kept my head, instead of going off like that. But (Woolley) was making unfair calls and was saying things he shouldn’t have said.”

Wilson’s attack was just the finishing blow to a game that saw tempers flare in pregame warmups. After the preceding sophomore game, which Palmdale won, 56-20, Palmdale players chanted “We are Palmdale” repeatedly toward the Saugus stands. Both head coaches exchanged words at midfield during a first-quarter timeout when Saugus Coach Dick Flaherty spoke with officials regarding what he believed was rough play by Palmdale.

Adding to Palmdale’s frustration was the fact that the Falcons outgained Saugus, 220 yards to 30, but was penalized eight times for 100 yards, compared to Saugus, which only had 54 yards in penalties.

“It was a fiasco,” said Mike Frazier, a senior linebacker on this year’s Palmdale team. “It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that in my whole life. It was kind of like a riot atmosphere.”

Flaherty said: “The situation was ugly. It was a complete embarrassment to the Golden League as a league and Palmdale as a school.”

In a time when high school violence is a growing concern, the “Palmdale incident” is viewed as prep athletics at their worse. The attacks were publicized throughout the area and are greatly responsible for the recent emphasis placed on sportsmanship in high school sports by the Southern Section.

“You can’t say that one incident is the reason, but the Palmdale case is a highlight in the increased concentration on sportsmanship awareness,” said Bill Clark, a Southern Section administrator in charge of football.

Palmdale principal Linda Janzen said: “We had three individuals who made bad decisions, and 57 other individuals on the team who didn’t get involved. It was an unfortunate incident which everyone involved feels shouldn’t have happened.”

Robert Miner, Palmdale athletic director who has officiated high school football games in the Antelope Valley for 16 years, said: “We got bad press and a bad reputation. Last year was just an isolated incident where a kid got frustrated and made a poor choice and ended up paying the price.

“I think that (Palmdale High officials) handled the incident very appropriately, where we didn’t do anything at first until we got all the facts,” Miner said. “We met with people from Saugus and watched film of the game taken by both schools. We had to look at the seriousness of it and decide what steps to take to prevent something like that happening in the future.”

At first, the cause of the attack appeared clear, with the blame being placed on a frustrated Palmdale team unable to score. However, Palmdale players and coaches insisted that Saugus players and even an official shouted racial slurs at several black Palmdale players. About half of Palmdale’s team was black, while Saugus had two black players.

After hearing these statements, Palmdale school officials decided to appeal the Southern Section’s decision. Despite the testimony of several Palmdale players, the appeal was denied.

“Because the kids involved were good kids, we decided that there had to be more to it,” Miner said. “Our kids did a super job testifying, but more or less, they basically said all of our kids were lying. . . .You don’t want to rehash some things, but we didn’t totally agree with the (Southern Section’s) findings. We were not totally to blame. There were underlying circumstances that they say didn’t happen.”

The officials, Woolley and referee Mike Davis, denied that they heard or said any racial slurs, and Flaherty said emphatically again this week: “There were no racial slurs made during the game.”

Palmdale Coach Kent Bothwell disagreed: “I honestly feel that the racial slurs made were a key element. We talked to the kids before the game and told them that Saugus has a history with racial slurs. I felt pretty bad about the (incident) afterward. But, I understand now that there was not really much I could have done differently.”

Bothwell is also upset with what has happened to his former players who were expelled after the incident.

“I see (Wilson) every once in a while because he is playing at Pierce Junior College and he has come to a couple of our games this year,” Bothwell said. “But I’d sure like to see the other kids. I’ve just lost touch with them. It hurts because I consider all the kids who played for me as my kids. I think they all feel that I did all I could for them.

“(Wilson) knows that the coaches are about the only ones who stood by him. I talked to him, and he told me it bothers him that wherever he goes, he gets pointed out as the kid who beat up an official.”

Wilson has not graduated from high school but has made a big contribution to Pierce’s secondary this season. He makes his first start Saturday against Valley College.

“We are delighted to have him playing for us,” Pierce Coach Bob Enger said. “He is kind of a low-key guy who you would not expect to have that incident occur to. He is serious about football and serious about his schoolwork. He has handled things well and has accepted what has happened.”

Tonight, when Palmdale takes the field against Saugus, Palmdale’s game announcer will read a passage concerning sportsmanship from the section’s playoff handbook, which he has done at every home game this season.

“I think that we have increased awareness in behavior in terms of how one should act on the athletic field, not only players but the fans in the stands,” said Janzen, Palmdale’s principal. “I’m sure that the lesson learned was that student-athletes must display good sportsmanship no matter what the situation and how frustrating it may be. The message is loud and clear out there. If you violate the conduct code, you’ll receive the maximum consequences allowed.”