Effects of Routs Far-Reaching

GARDEN GROVE —  Football is an emotional game to begin with. And if the game takes on a vindictive nature, the results can be explosive.

The night before the Nov. 15 Bolsa Grande-La Quinta game, the Bolsa Grande field was vandalized. Obscenities were spray-painted on the field and a dead cat and animal feces were left behind.

(During La Quinta’s subsequent investigation, Coach Jeff Veeder said some of his football players confessed to toilet-papering the Bolsa Grande school grounds and writing disparaging remarks in chalk on the walls. None of the players, he said, were involved in the more serious vandalism of the field.)

In an annual rivalry where emotions already ran high, the Matadors were enraged.

Before the game, referee Jerry Kress remarked to the Bolsa Grande coaches that he had seen several blowouts this season, and he hoped this could be a good, close game. He was told “this won’t be one.”

“I thought it was an innocuous remark at the time,” Kress recalled.

It wasn’t, the way things turned out. Bolsa led, 22-0, at the half and went on to win 53-23. Quarterback Doug Baughman passed for a state-record 562 yards and six touchdowns. Receiver Ramon Nevarez caught eight passes for a state-record 380 yards and four touchdowns of 24, 90, 58 and 54 yards.

After the kickoff following Nevarez’s last score, a fight started between the teams near the Bolsa Grande sideline. Eight players were ejected--six of them Matadors, most for coming off the bench to join the fracas--and the game was called with 3:16 left to play.

Veeder, in his first year at La Quinta, said it was wrong of his players to vandalize the La Quinta school grounds, and he was more upset at “the students and/or alumni” who damaged the field.

But Veeder said he will not forget what he considered a deliberate attempt by Bolsa Grande to degrade his team.

“In my opinion, the conduct of their coaches was inappropriate,” Veeder said. “They kept matching [Nevarez] on our worst defender--a third-string guy playing because of injuries to others--and throwing to him 95% of time. To me, that looks suspicious.

“I spoke with [Bolsa Grande] Coach Earl Graves at the league meeting and he denied running up the score. But where I come from, when you have 25-point lead in the game you eat the ball. That’s respect among coaches.”

After the game, Graves denied running up the score and still does today. The passing game is Bolsa Grande’s primary offense, he said, adding he did his best to substitute as the lead grew wider.

“I wished we could have finished the game, because the way it ended left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth,” Graves said. “But in the three years I’ve been here I have not tried to run up the score because it’s happened to us.

“We didn’t go into that game trying to set records. But we did have a couple of matchups that were in our favor. Even so, three of Nevarez’s big touchdowns were hitch passes that weren’t designed to go that far; he was just able to break them.”

No one benefits from that kind of lopsided score, especially if the intent of the winning team is to embarrass or humiliate.

Jonathan Brower, professor of sociology at Cal State Fullerton, says trampling the esteem of young athletes can be emotionally devastating to the victims.

“For the kid on the team getting slaughtered, he will feel crummy no matter what,” said Brower, noting that he was speaking in generalities. “And if they have the sense the [opposing] coach is going all out to beat them, they . . . can be more humiliated losing big to the third string. When something like that is done in public, generally, it is hard for those kids.”

Jay Coakley, professor of sociology at Colorado, goes further.

“When a 9-year-old loses by large margin, it’s not nearly as significant in his life as it is for a 16-year-old,” Coakley said. “Between youth and high school sports, the issue of respect becomes important. When others run up the score, they show they don’t respect you. You’ve been dissed. The respect thing is crucial in how you see yourself.

“High school people should discuss this. Somebody should study this. The only reason scores are run up are for teams to be ranked higher. It does not take into consideration your opponent. All sports is about competition with an opponent. When you define opponents as enemies to be eliminated, that puts sports in a different light.”

Graves said Bolsa Grande later received letters of apology from La Quinta students who said they had damaged the field. He hopes both schools can put the incident behind them, at least by next year’s game.

That might not be easy. La Quinta senior Daniel Almazan, the Aztecs’ quarterback and best defensive back--whose side of the field Bolsa Grande studiously avoided much of the game--said he would not forget even though he will no longer play high school football.

“I do believe they ran it up,” Almazan said. “Some things happened the night before and they blamed us. This is the first time this happened to me. I was angry, although I didn’t want a fight.

“I don’t hate them. Maybe at some point I could talk to them about it. But I don’t want to see anyone else go through that.”