Football players suspended after rivalry graffiti

Andrew Wainer

Two Fountain Valley football players were suspended after they

spray-painted obscenities on Edison High School football coach David

White’s office in late October.

“It wasn’t a very nice thing to arrive to in the morning,” White said. “I

got to work with my two sons and saw graffiti on my office using my name

and a lot of four-letter words together.”

Edison High School officials said the graffiti cost the school $2,200 to

clean.

“A lot of nice art, such as our school logo and banner, were defaced,”

White added.

Fountain Valley High officials refused to identify the students. They

will be forced to pay for the cost of the damages. A number of students

were also suspended from school for one to five days, according to

Fountain Valley Principal Gary Ernst.

Officials from both schools said the incident was related to the intense

Fountain Valley--Edison football rivalry. The two teams competed at

Orange Coast College on Nov. 5 to a capacity crowd of more than 8,000

fans.

Security was tight and hundreds of prospective fans were turned away due

to lack of space.

“When you have that many people together in such an emotionally charged

situation, you don’t want to take any chances,” Edison Principal Brian

Garland said. Security personnel included four district police and six

campus security people.

In spite of the heavy security detail and increased tension around the

game due to the vandalism, Fountain Valley officials played down the

graffiti incident.

“It’s just kids being kids,” Fountain Valley football coach Johnson said.

“They (Edison students) spray-painted our weight room earlier this year,

its part of the rivalry.”

Fountain Valley principal Gary Ernst added “I’ve been here nine years and

I can’t remember a year when there hasn’t been an inappropriate incident

surrounding the game.”

But White said the incident was not business as usual.

“Nothing like this has happened before. It has never been so personal,”

White said. “Our players are pretty upset.”

The rivalry between the two Huntington Beach Union High School District

schools is decades old, and incidents leading up to the big game have

been ugly.

“I think they went too far,” said one Edison student who did not want to

be identified. “We have even had dead animals and cars thrown into our

school pool.”

The rivalry dates back at least to the mid-1970’s, when the two teams

played in front of 45,000 spectators at Anaheim Stadium.

“The two schools became league powers early in their careers,” Ernst

said. “They were always fighting for the championship.”

Student leaders and officials from the two schools met to try and prevent

further destructive acts, and both schools had 24-hour security on campus

prior to the game.

“We met in order to promote the rivalry in a positive way,” Ernst said.

“The game is exciting and it creates great memories but we want there to

be respect between the two schools.” He added that even the parent

booster clubs met to help create an atmosphere of respect.

Both Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach police stepped up patrols

around the two schools during the week of the game, Ernst said. “We

haven’t had any incidents of vandalism on either campus this week.”

The coaches from both school took the incident in stride.

“We were upset about our players being suspended, but it’s just something

you have to deal with,” Fountain Valley coach Eric Johnson said.

And even on the day of the big game, with competitive fires burning hot

in the hearts of players on both campuses, Edison coach Dave White made

sure his players kept the game and the rivalry in perspective.

“We may win and we may lose,” White said. “But, no matter what, we are

going to play with class.”