‘Where’s your passport?’ Video shows fans taunting Santa Maria basketball team
Near the end of a heated high school basketball game in Santa Maria, Righetti High School fans taunted rival St. Joseph High School players with chants of “Where’s your passport?,” sparking a verbal exchange between administrators, video from the Santa Maria Times shows.
St. Joseph, a private Catholic school, has one player on the team from France and three from Puerto Rico, according to the Times. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.
A tweet posted Tuesday night by Santa Maria Times sports editor Joe Bailey shows St. Joseph High principal Erinn Dougherty walking toward the raucous student section, waving her arms and yelling in response to the chants.
Dougherty then retreated to the other end of the gym, appearing to break down in tears.
The rivalry game ended in a 74-57 victory for St. Joseph High, the Mountain League’s second-place team.
St. Joseph High coach Tom Mott had a recruiting scandal while at San Luis Obispo’s Mission Prep in the mid-2000s.
The San Luis Obispo school investigated Mott for improper communications with a Puerto Rican player and the school forfeited two CIF-Central Section Division V championships. Following the 2005-2006 season, Mott abruptly resigned from his posts as the Royals’ coach and athletic director.
Santa Maria school officials comment on “heated rivalry” game
Mott briefly responded to a request for comment, crediting Righetti’s coach for stopping the chorus.
“Righetti’s coach and athletic director, Kevin Barbarick, did a great job of ending the chant,” Mott told The Tribune in an email.
Mott confirmed the school has a player from France who came to St. Joseph High as a freshman.
The spokesperson for Santa Maria Joint Unified High School district, including Righetti High, said the district is aware of the “unacceptable comments from both sides” without specifying the comments.
“We are aware of the unacceptable comments exchanged from both sides of the basketball court during the heated rivalry between St. Joseph and Righetti High School Tuesday night,” said Kenny Klein, the district’s spokesman, in a statement. “The incident is being addressed by (Santa Maria Joint Unified) and (Righetti High) school officials. We have no further comment at this time.”
St. Joseph released a statement Wednesday, saying the school hopes the incident can serve as a lesson in sportsmanship.
“We are disappointed about the way the boys basketball game against Righetti High School ended on Tuesday night,” said school spokesman Adrian Marquez Alarcon. “We do not tolerate any type of inappropriate statements made at any student especially if they could be interpreted as disrespectful. We hope that this can be a lesson in sportsmanship and mutual respect for students from both schools.”
Santa Maria school principal reacts to student chants
Administrators from the schools exchanged words, the Santa Maria Times confirmed, noting a verbal back-and-forth between Dougherty and Righetti High assistant principal Ted Lyon, who was standing near the Righetti bench.
“I did have an emotional reaction to that” chant, Dougherty told The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “I have an Ethiopian daughter — and all these students are my children — so it is personal to me.”
Dougherty told the Los Angeles Times the team has faced similar chants at road games, but wanted to ensure a safe environment at home.
Righetti High’s student population consists of nearly three-quarters minority students, including 63% Hispanic students, according to the website www.publicschoolreview.com.
A heated moment took place earlier in the game when a St. Joseph player fouled a Righetti player, knocking him to the ground. The Righetti player got up and approached his opponent in a face-to-face confrontation, before they were separated.
Mott, St. Joseph’s athletic director and coach, told the Santa Maria Times immediately after the game, “Anything our crowd or their crowd does is just part of the game.”
But he later clarified, according to the L.A. Times, that he wasn’t aware of the controversial chant at the time he spoke to the Santa Maria Times.
“Obviously, any type of inappropriate cheer by anybody isn’t something we welcome in our gym,” he told the L.A. Times. “Any type of racism, whether intended or not, has no place in our community.”
Basketball coach left Mission Prep after recruiting scandal
Mott left Mission Prep after he was embroiled in controversy and charges of improper recruiting in the mid-2000s.
Mott’s successful stint as Mission Prep’s boys’ basketball coach and athletic director was halted when a school investigation into his e-mail communications revealed improper contact with Adrian Hernandez — a player who helped lead the Royals to section titles in 2005 and 2006 — before Hernandez transferred to Mission Prep from Puerto Rico.
As a result, the Royals athletic department forfeited two CIF-Central Section Division V titles and was placed on probation.
But a few years later, St. Joseph’s previous athletic director John Osborne told the San Luis Obispo Tribune in 2009 that the school was fortunate to hire Mott on.
“I’ve known (Tom) a long time, known his dad a long time ...” said Osborne in 2009. “I think we’re really fortunate to get someone of his caliber in both of those areas.”
Mott is the grandson of former Cal Poly coach and athletic department head Robert Mott — namesake of the San Luis Obispo university’s Mott Athletics Center) —and son of San Luis Obispo attorney Hank Mott.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 1:00 PM.
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