Molalla parents cast racial slurs

On Monday, Sept. 16 the Outlaws soccer team made a trip to Molalla with every intention of playing soccer.

Coach Mark Keel acknowledged that "Molalla is historically a very difficult place to play. We had some trouble there last year."

The Sisters team has a player who is black. On the Molalla side, there was a group of about 20 or 30 people crowding the sideline, mostly adults according to Coach Keel.

They were shouting things such as "Lynch the nigger" and "Kill 'em," and "Boy, I'd make you my slave," according to Keel.

"This isn't new," Keel said. Last year, a group of eight white men surrounded and threatened to beat up the father of the black player on the Sisters team, he said.

"I felt like it (this year's game) was a dangerous situation and our players felt threatened, so we packed up and left. Perhaps I should have handled it differently, but I made multiple pleas with their coach to do something about it, and he basically said it wasn't his problem," said Keel.

"I talked to the referees about it, and they told the parents to desist or leave. The parents said, in effect, 'Make us.' There was no administrator present, and we didn't feel safe. So we walked off the field with ten minutes left in the game."

Molalla would have won the game in any case. They were leading 4-0 when Keel decided to leave the field. "The conditions were brutal, first with the weather, and then with the crowd," Keel said.

Keel continued, "I have received tremendous support from the Sisters parents who were there, thanking me for walking off the field. I understand that there is a rule that prohibits a team from doing that, and I may be reprimanded for it, but I felt that our team was in danger."

Sisters Athletic Director Mary Flande said that she felt Coach Keel "did what he felt he needed to do. He did it for the right reasons." She emphasized also that the problem was not with the Molalla players.

"The problems were confined to the adults on the sidelines. The Molalla players were great," Flande said.

She has written a letter to the Oregon School Athletics Association, explaining the reasons Coach Keel decided to forfeit the game.

She believes there will be an OSAA executive board meeting in December.