Banning Coach Requests, Gets Security for Dorsey Game

At the request of Banning baseball Coach Syl Saavedra, the Pilots’ team bus was met at Dorsey High by a uniformed police officer and Banning’s assistant principal when the team arrived 90 minutes before Monday’s game between the two schools.

Saavedra had threatened to tell the bus driver to turn around and drive back to Banning if security and administration officials did not meet the team.

After deeming it safe for his players to leave the bus, Saavedra talked about the logic behind his threatened boycott.

“I always hold my breath whenever we come here,” Saavedra said. “We always catch hell here. People are throwing things at us, yelling obscenities, all kinds of things.”

Last fall, then-Banning football Coach Joe Dominguez chose to forfeit rather than allow his team to play a game at Dorsey’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, which had been the site of two shooting incidents in earlier games.

Although his team’s arrival was without incident, Saavedra was not completely happy. Dorsey’s field, with a rocky infield and no pitcher’s mound, was another of Saavedra’s sore spots.

“It’s no wonder Dorsey’s (baseball) program is in the shape it’s in,” Saavedra said.

Saavedra seemed eager to play the game and get his team back on the bus. The game started at 2:45 p.m., 15 minutes ahead of schedule. When it was over, Saavedra hustled his players back on the bus after the compulsory handshakes.

Banning won, 13-5.