The Utah High School Activities Association on Friday handed down fines, a suspension and other disciplinary actions for Intermountain Christian School and Tabiona High over their involvement in two separate altercations during boys’ basketball games between the two schools earlier this year.
Charges of racial slurs and death threats ensued after the two teams met in games played at ICS, located in Holladay, and Tabiona. The conflict came to a head in a testy hearing on May 20, with attorneys representing each school calling witnesses and cross-examining them.
A UHSAA panel, made up of five members of the organization’s executive committee, fined Tabiona $6,000 and ICS $1,000. ICS coach Tim Drisdom was suspended for the first two games of next season, and both schools also were placed on probation — Tabiona for three years, ICS for one.
Drisdom, Tabiona coach Lee Gines and Tabiona principal Darin Jenkins also were fined $250 each.
Drisdom was suspended because of what was deemed an improper interaction with a Tabiona player following the game at ICS on Jan. 18.
Leon Casper, a Tabiona supporter was found to have hurled racial slurs toward Drisdom in both games, will be asked by the Tabiona administration to stay away from UHSAA-sanctioned games at Tabiona for one year. After that time, if Casper attends an event, a “minder” will accompany him to ensure he does not make any racist remarks. The “minder” has to submit a report on Casper’s behavior to the UHSAA after every Tabiona basketball game he attends.
Tabiona was fined for four violations, each of which carried a maximum fine of $1,500. Per the decision, those violations are:
Tabiona’s three-year probation will include a “sportsmanship audit” that will be performed at random by the UHSAA. The cost of those audits will be paid by Tabiona.
“Should any of these audits disclose violations of the Association’s Sportsmanship rules, the sport in which such violations are disclosed will play all games of the next season on the road,” the decision reads. “No home games."
Intermountain Christian’s fine and probation were levied due to “two separate events of unsportsmanlike conduct and lack of institutional control,” the decision reads. Those events include an altercation in a hallway between ICS parent Duane Koski and a Tabiona administrator, and Drisdom’s interaction with a Tabiona player after a game in which he allegedly threatened that player. The decision called the hallway incident “an embarrassment.”
Koski, deemed “a threat to opposing coaches and players” by the panel, will also be issued a “minder” during games. The “minder” will report Koski’s behavior to ICS and the UHSAA if he is found to be violating the organization’s sportsmanship rules.
If either Casper or Koski do not agree to the conditions set forth for them by the UHSAA, restraining orders could be filed against them by their respective schools, the report says.
In addition, both schools were charged with paying half the fee of the court reporter present at the May 20 hearing.
Neither Jenkins or Drisdom immediately returned requests for comment.
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