Sweetwater Cancels Athletic Activities

Hoping to avoid any large crowds and potential demonstrations in the wake of protests over the Rodney King verdict, the Sweetwater Union High School District canceled all weekend activities, including the championship game of the Hilltop/Moose Baseball Tournament and the Raider Invitational boys’ volleyball tournament.

“My feeling is that they wanted to avoid any possible confrontations because of the situation in L.A.,” said John Minich, the Bonita Vista volleyball coach. “On Friday, because of the demonstrations in San Diego, they didn’t know what direction the protests were going to take.”

Neither John Rindone, the district superintendent, nor Robert Dodds, athletic coordinator for the Sweetwater school district, was available for comment.

Diana Rude, volleyball coach at Chula Vista, said the intent of the edict was to keep people off the school campuses.

“They wanted to avoid a large gathering of crowds or students, in general,” she said.

Saturday’s title game for the Hilltop-Moose tournament, pitting No. 4 USDHS (17-3) against No. 8 Poway (13-4), was originally to be decided March 21, but was postponed until this weekend because of wet conditions earlier in the season.

In addition to the baseball game, Southwest High’s Raider Invitational boys’ volleyball tournament--also scheduled for Saturday--was delayed until May 9.

“It was postponed late Friday afternoon,” said Southwest athletic director and volleyball Coach Fred Sills. “The principal said all extracurricular activities were suspended: dances, SAT tests and the volleyball tournament.”

USDHS baseball coach Dick Serrano said the postponement of the Hilltop-Moose championship caught him off guard.

“We’re just coaches, we don’t make decisions like this,” Serrano said. “We set this game up 1 1/2 weeks ago. If we don’t play it next Saturday, it probably will not be played: the following week I have three games and the week after that is the last week of the season.”

After that, the playoffs begin.