The Bell Game between Victor Valley (CA) and Apple Valley (CA)has been running since 1969, and the two Southern California schools do not need much help getting up for it. Apple Valley owns the all-time series 39-17, but Victor Valley had taken the last two. The Jackrabbits made it three in a row Friday night, September 11, with a 20-7 win at home.
Most teams would be happy taking that momentum into a new game week, but instead Victor Valley was slapped with some serious discipline based on how they chose to celebrate that win on the field in front of the opposing fan base.
Victor Valley issued a unique suspension to its whole varsity roster, as well as the entire coaching staff for all football activities for a full week, including the forfeiture of this upcoming Friday's non-league home game against Brea Olinda (CA). In their decision, the district pointed to how the team chose to celebrate their win last Friday night.
Video circulating on social media showed the Jackrabbits mascot making middle-finger gestures at Apple Valley spectators while players celebrated, and the school said team members "behaved in an unsportsmanlike manner toward the opposing team and its fans, including offensive gestures and language."
The coaching staff will be serving a suspension right alongside the players. Districts hand down player discipline all the time, and they will sit an assistant when something specific traces back to him. Shutting down the entire staff for a week, forfeit and all, is a heavier call, and it delivers a message loud and clear that the administration decided the sideline owned the night as much as the roster did.
Superintendent Carl J. Coles and Principal Darius Robinson laid it out in a joint statement. "There is a clear line between passionate competition and unacceptable conduct," they wrote. "That line was crossed."
They also included a line that reads like it was written for the coaches as much as the kids: "Our responsibility as educators is not simply to develop better athletes, it is to develop better human beings."
The school accepted responsibility for falling short on respect, sportsmanship and hospitality as the host, apologized to Apple Valley and its community, and said athletic success cannot come before character. During the week off, administrators plan to go back through the athletic code of conduct with both the players and the staff.
There is a reason coaches spend so much of August talking to their teams about what happens after the whistle in a rivalry week. The scoreboard said 20-7. Having the entire varsity program sit out the week after says something else entirely.
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