By Samuel Joseph Destin
On April 23, 2025, Albany High School’s boys baseball team played against Pinole Valley High School. During the game, the Pinole Valley team jeered, barked, and shouted racist remarks at Asian players on our team. When The Cougar reached out to several athletes on our boys baseball team, they all declined to comment as they had been advised by Coach John Anderson.
Neither the Pinole Valley coach nor the umpires failed to act or admonish the team in any way during the game. The Pinole Valley Principal reached out to Principal Darren McNally and Superintendent Sara Stone saying that the Pinole Valley High School coach “didn’t hear the remarks.”
Senior Jordin Shishima who attended the game, says that not only did the coach hear the remarks, but he actively engaged in taunting the Albany High Team. She adds, “The whole team and the coach were just shouting like ‘nice ten miles per hour’ towards the pitcher and stuff like that.”
The PVHS Principal also said that the remarks came from “a small group of students who regularly attend games”, but in the formal complaint made to West Contra Costa School District, Eugene Lee, wrote “players from the Pinole Valley High School baseball team were recorded shouting racial slurs and mocking Asian players”. Lee also states that the PVHS team “mocked the incident on social media, tagging Asian players by name and using hashtags such as #WeDontDiscriminate and #LoveThyNeighbor.” In the complaint, Lee states that “these actions were clearly racially motivated, sustained across innings, and reported to game officials. No in-game disciplinary action was taken.”
Recently, the Asian parent engagement group has also written an open letter on Facebook to the Albany community, calling for Restorative Justice efforts, and to commend Stone and Bill Tresler, Athletic Director of Albany Unified School District, for their response to the incident.
Stone and Tresler have already submitted a formal complaint to the Interscholastic Federation, and West Contra Costa School District has launched a formal investigation. When Stone had attempted to follow up on the West Contra Costa District investigation, she received no response on the status of the investigation. Stone has requested that the PVHS team forfeit both the April 23 and 25 games, and declare the team ineligible for postseason play.
