Administrators working together to identify group of girls; Beloit coach doesn’t view incident as reflection on Elkhorn
Comments made by a group of young girls at an April 7 soccer match against Beloit Memorial High School recently put a national spotlight on Elkhorn Area High School and its students. As of last Monday, administrations from the two schools were working in tandem to determine just who the group of young girls were. (Photo by Kellen Olshefski)
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
After a group of young students made some racially charged comments at an Elkhorn girls soccer match on April 7, administrators from both Elkhorn and Beloit Memorial schools are working to figure out just who these students are and set things right.
In a special interview with the Elkhorn Independent prior to releasing an official statement on the district’s investigation on April 11, Elkhorn Area High School Principal Chris Trottier said the racial comments made by a small group of girls added to the intense atmosphere of an already competitive soccer match.
“Our crowd was, to quote one of the referees, very into it, our girls were being very successful and our girls were being very physical, and these are quotes from one of the referees,” he said. “So, it was intense and this seemed to be – based on our investigation – seemed to be the catalyst.”
Trottier said it’s hard to put the whole situation in a sequence of events, though what the two administrations found as the trigger was an unidentified group of five elementary to middle school-aged girls, who were sitting with Beloit fans. That group was mentioned by students from both schools during the investigation.
With the incident mired in hearsay and rumors, Trottier said her asked Beloit officials to find out what exactly Beloit junior varsity soccer players heard from the group on Thursday evening while watching the varsity match from the stands.
“They said it was a group of five, elementary to middle school aged students who were saying, ‘Trump, go back to Mexico,’ something along those lines,” he said.
Trottier said a Beloit parent sitting in the stands has a photo of the group, though both schools were still attempting to identify the group as of Monday night.
“We’ve done our research and asked, nobody knows who they were,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can to try and find out who they were.”
Trottier said the junior varsity girls approached Beloit Memorial Coach Brian Denu at halftime of the varsity match to inform him of the racial comments, which Denu confirmed. Denu said Monday he had also received a text message from one of the Beloit parents in the stands concerning the comments just prior to his junior varsity players coming to him.
At that time, Trottier said, Denu brought the concern to the referees, who in turn brought team captains together and told them if anything was heard, the game would be shut down.
Both Trottier and Denu said an announcement was made during the game over the loudspeaker that derogatory remarks would not be tolerated and the message was again repeated at the end of Thursday’s game.
“We appreciated that and unfortunately, it was just a little bit too late and there were some kids that were pretty upset about what was going on,” Denu said.
Later in the game, Trottier said, an Elkhorn player shouted “you suck No. 7,” after the player allegedly yelled at Elkhorn fans to “shut up” and made an “inappropriate gesture” toward the fans, according to a staff member.
“Issues happen between competing forces that both teams deem don’t meet WIAA regulations for sportsman-like conduct,” he said.
Typically he said an administrator would be informed at the game and a conversation would be held post-game, usually among principals or activities directors from the schools, to work through it collectively. Unfortunately, he said, this go-around it gained energy quickly through social media and details have been muddy ever since.
Trottier said the district spoke to two students who chanted back and forth four or five times, “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.”
“Every student I spoke to said the Trump comment was said four or five times by two students,” he said. “They used the phrase ‘it popcorned back and forth.’”
He said school-based consequences would be issued for these students.
“They’re very apologetic and remorseful for their behavior,” he said.
He also noted, he spoke with a single boys soccer player watching Thursday night’s game, who shouted “build a wall,” a single time. Trottier said the boy told him “build a wall” is a common term in soccer, referring to a defensive strategy to prevent the opposing team from getting to the goal.
Trottier said these two incidents were completely separate, and the phrase “Donald Trump, build a wall,” was never chanted.
Denu added while it wasn’t anything that he heard and was able to point out himself, though, he definitely wouldn’t say it was a chant.
“The referee who was on our sideline said he did hear ‘build a wall’ and the Trump comment, but it was isolated incidents,” he said. “He’s officiated Elkhorn games three times, he enjoys it, he said our fans were really into it and he said they behaved.
“He said ‘they were rowdy like most soccer fans.’”
Trottier said all of the events unfolded when Elkhorn Athletic Director and Associate Principal Dan Kiel left the game briefly to take the cash box back to the school office, something he said is a standard procedure, which took all of 15 minutes at most. He said Kiel was informed of the incidents upon his return to the game.
Trottier said the district worked cooperatively on the investigation with Beloit Memorial High School’s athletic director, principal, superintendent and vice principal. He said the two administrations have worked together well, talking with students, teachers, administration, players and referees from Thursday night’s game to determine what exactly happened.
“There’s kind of a natural connection there,” he said. “There’s some former teachers from Elkhorn who work there, our former principal, my predecessor, is the principal there,” he said. “So, there’s some natural relationships there.
“I think the conversation has been wonderful, understanding, respectful and collaborative, all with the students’ best interest in mind.”
Racism in Elkhorn?
Trottier said in Elkhorn they see integration on not only the athletic fields, but in Elkhorn classrooms all the time, and race has never been a concern before and hate crimes aren’t something they’ve seen in Elkhorn schools.
He did note the district’s historic rivalry with Delavan-Darien School District, in which students from both schools displayed nationalist traits, though Delavan-Darien and Elkhorn administrations have worked diligently to extinguish that and they haven’t seen it from Elkhorn students in the past year and a half.
“We worked through it and all of us agreed it was part of a tradition that kind of evolved to a point that we need to pull it back a little bit,” he said.
Denu said he thinks the thing he is most upset about is that while some unfortunate things happened, he doesn’t want Elkhorn to be painted in a poor light because of comments made by a small contingent of young girls.
“Even the kids that said it, my guess is that they’re all good kids, they made a mistake and I certainly don’t think it’s a reflection of Elkhorn,” he said. “We’ve played Coach Kayser’s team for years and we’ve never had an incident like this before with them.
“I think it’s just a small pocket of kids and that’s the one thing I wish would be reported a little differently. It’s not the town of Elkhorn, it’s just a few kids that made a poor decision with what they were saying.”
Denu said he remembers being a spectator as a high school student himself and knows students want to give their team the edge, supporting them as much as possible.
“I’ve seen kids in Beloit, Janesville, all over the place, who are good kids and they just say or do silly, silly things just not thinking about it,” he said. “I’ve known BZ pretty well over the past few years and he’s always been a class act guy.
“It certainly isn’t a reflection of his players or his coaching staff and I’m sure the general population of students at Elkhorn are good kids.”
Denu said when talking to people he’s always stressed it was only a small group of students and certainly not the whole group of Elkhorn fans.
“We understand that there’s a whole lot more to be proud of in Elkhorn than not and this is not a reflection on the entire city, the community, the school or the school district,” he said.
Moving forward
Trottier said it’s important that when the students responsible for the comments are identified and administration speaks with them, they need to maintain an expectation and understanding of what the district values are, of what’s tolerable, while also educating the students and focusing on expanding “their world and their mindset.”
“I think it’s important we help these kids understand, whether we can assess their intentions, but we can support them too in trying to understand where they made this mistake and appreciate their level of remorse and how they want to make this right,” he said.
Trottier said multiple formal apologies have been issued to Beloit Memorial High School.
Denu said from his understanding from what’s been shared with him, Elkhorn’s administration is doing exactly what it needs to.
“It’s going to be a learning experience for everybody,” he said. “Hopefully, this lets people know they need to be more careful with what they say because words can have a big impact on kids.”
Denu said the team canceled its game Friday to give students a day off and, in speaking with his students, they understand while the comments were malicious, they’re “strong kids” and they’re ready to move on.
“They understand it wasn’t 800 people against them in the stands, it was a few kids who said some things I’m sure at the end of the day they wish if they could take back, they would,” he said.
Denu noted his players are also appreciative that the incident opened up some eyes that people need to watch what they say.
“If anything comes of this, I hope that kids around the state learn to watch what they say and that includes Beloit, Janesville, Madison schools, Milwaukee schools, that everybody kind of buys into that idea,” he said. “Cheer for your team and respect your opponent.”