HS Football Season Marred by Racist Incidents

Living in Alabama and having committed to the Crimson Tide affords quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa a heightened status over elite recruits who decided to go elsewhere.

"People here are die-hard for 'Bama football," Tagovailoa said.

The admiration for Tagovailoa is even greater because he's the brother of Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who led Alabama in the national title game last season.

Still, Taulia learned during a road game this season that racism is no respecter of person, family or affiliation. Once Taulia had his Thompson High School (Alabaster, Alabama) team firmly in control in the second half, he said he heard racist remarks hurled at him and his teammates from the home team's stands.

"It's crazy that the person felt comfortable enough to say things in a crowd in public," he said. "I'm not naive. I know there are racist people, but still."

Taulia's experience was just one in a string of, at the very least, racially insensitive incidents that have surfaced at high school football games across the country this fall.

"Racism is very much alive," said Jordan Clark, a four-star cornerback from University Lab High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

If the wide-ranging spree of incidents are any indication, the culprits are ditching covert for overt.

At halftime of the game Nov. 2 between Georgia high schools Brookwood and DeKalb Lakeside, Brookwood band members were supposed to spell out the word "Broncos" but instead spelled out the word "coon." In a letter to students and parents, Brookwood Principal William Bo Ford Jr. apologized for the "completely unacceptable racial term."

In California in September, Santa Ana High Principal Jeff Bishop said he saw posters reading "We Love White" and "Build the Wall" during the school's football game at Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo). Bishop also said he heard Aliso Niguel students say, "It's not a great day to be Mexican now, is it?" Santa Ana's student population is 99 percent Hispanic, while Aliso Niguel's student population is predominantly white.

In Ohio in October, the Mansfield High football team found a box of bananas in their locker room when they arrived to play at Ashland, according to the Mansfield News Journal. Mansfield, which has a predominantly African-American student population, also reportedly had bananas thrown at them, and a person in the stands was dressed as a banana. An Ashland school statement said the cross country team, which uses the locker room, leaves uneaten fruit in the locker room so it doesn't go to waste.

Daniel Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said instances such as these "are more noticeable" because of the current political climate.

"There are two ways to look at it," Drezner said. "One way is that it's always been a problem, it's just that we're beginning to notice it now. That's where (President Donald) Trump's variety of examples of bigotry on display has suddenly made us more sensitized to these sorts of things happening.

"The other possibility is that Trump emboldens this type of behavior. I think it will get better because, eventually, Trump will move from the stage. Everyone who tries to act like him winds up paying a far higher price than he does because everyone else is not the president."

The targets of racism, however, are shaken. U'Kari Baker, a highly recruited wide receiver at Central High in Louisville, is outgoing and approachable, the type of person who can strike up a conversation with a total stranger. "Not being cocky or anything like that, but people just like me," Baker said. "I just naturally get along with people."

So he was dumbfounded last month when a group of students at nearby Ballard High passed around a watermelon while taunting Baker and the rest of the predominantly African-American team.

"I couldn't believe it," Baker said. "I still can't. It's hard to put into words, really. I'm a 17-year-old black teenager and I had never experienced racism before. It's hard to believe this still is going on in 2018."

Oxford (Alabama) High center Clay Webb said he's "heard the N-word" said to his teammates by opposing players "in a couple different games, and I'm always shocked."

"Those people are just stupid," said Webb, ranked No. 18 in USA TODAY's Chosen 25 recruiting rankings. "I'm white, and it bothers me, too. Usually, on the next couple of plays, those guys get rocked."

Ballard High tried to handle its situation diplomatically. In a letter sent to parents, Principal Jason Neuss addressed the watermelon incident, calling it "inappropriate" and "insensitive" and reached out to Central Principal Raymond Green.

Baker said he was "on the fence" about the apology from Neuss because the school's administration "didn't pass around the watermelon," students did. "I wish we could've had a conversation with some of those students," he said. "Just so they could hear how that impacted us and we could talk things out."

For that to happen, authority figures must know about incidents. Reporting can be spotty.

National Federation of State High School Associations Director of Sports and Sports Medicine Bob Colgate said he has "not heard anything or had any of our state associations bring that to my attention."

"That's not to say things may not be happening," Colgate said. "Each state has different sportsmanship policies and guidelines. If it gets to the point where an individual is ejected from the game, then the state association's ejection policy comes into play."

In Alabama an ejection is accompanied by a $300 fine the school must pay to the state association. The player is required to take a refresher course in a sportsmanship program, which every athlete is required to complete before competing.

"We have not had any schools report racial problems," AHSAA spokesman Ron Ingram said. "If it came before us, we would address it. We would appreciate it if schools would let us know."

Reported or not, racist comments and symbols shock and sting. Central running back Mykah Williams said that seeing the bananas in the locker room was "an eye-opener."

"This was the stuff my grandparents were dealing with in the 1950s," Williams said. "Now I am. I thought we were better than that."

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