Ten days after winning its first Southern Regional boys basketball championship, Coronado was stripped of the title Wednesday by the California Interscholastic Federation due to a tortilla throwing incident after the game.
The CIF handed down seven sanctions, including vacating the 4-A Southern Region championship, Coronado being placed on probation through the 2023-24 school year and no home postseason boys basketball section or regional playoff games for the Islanders through the 2022-23 season.
For more than a week, the state's governing body for high school sports has investigated the incident which raised national attention after at least two people threw tortillas at the team from Orange Glen, a school which is largely Latino.
"There is no doubt the act of throwing tortillas at a predominately Latino team is unacceptable and warrants sanctions," the CIF wrote. "Based on the investigations conducted by the local schools and school districts, the events depicted in the video evidence, and this office's review, the sanctions below are levied against Coronado High School."
In addition to the sanctions, the Coronado Unified School Board last week voted unanimously to let go 12-year Coronado High School head coach JD Laaperi. That came three days after host and top seed Coronado defeated Orange Glen (Escondido) 60-57 in the CIF Division 4-A championship.
Laaperi blasted the incident the day following the game on Twitter, writing "Unfortunately a community member brought tortillas and distributed them which was unacceptable and racist in nature. …. I do not condone this behavior. Coronado High School does not condone this behavior and is already taking appropriate action."
One of those actions was to fire Laaperi, who reportedly cursed at an Orange Glen coach after the game. That, evidently, was at least part of the reason he was let go.
During a shortened, pandemic season, the Islanders went 24-5 and won their first regional crown. According to MaxPreps records, Laaperi was the head coach at Coronado since 2009-10, compiling a 215-121 record.
The teams had faced off eight days earlier in the San Diego Section Division II title game at a neutral site, a heated 51-48 Coronado victory. It was the Islanders' first section title in 31 years. A hard Orange Glen foul late in that game led to a technical foul and
bad blood between the two sides.
At a board meeting last week, Coronado team captain Wayne McKinney said that his team did not know someone had brought tortillas to the game and that those who did were not part of the squad. McKinney told the Union-Tribune that Coronado players and coaches have received death threats since reports from Saturday's game.
"It
was not based on race or class; it was simply a great game between two
teams," McKinney said. "I think many people are making Saturday out to
be something it was not."
After more than a week investigating, the CIF believed there was plenty to address.
In part of its statement on Wednesday, the CIF wrote: "While consequences are warranted for such an egregious action. ... We must all be aware that behavior does not normally change with sanctions alone. The path towards real change comes with the development of empathy for those who are on the receiving end of this type of degrading and demeaning behavior, no matter the proffered intent of that behavior."
