The Victor Valley High School football team has been benched for a week after school officials ruled their post-victory antics crossed into unacceptable territory.
Superintendent Carl J. Coles and Principal Darius Robinson pulled the plug on all football activities for the Jackrabbits, 20-7 winners over Apple Valley High School in last Friday’s annual “Bell Game” in Victorville. The entire squad and coaching staff will sit out this week, and their next scheduled contest has been forfeited.
The administrators pinned the decision on behavior they described as unsportsmanlike toward both the rival team and its supporters. In a joint statement, Coles and Robinson said players deployed “offensive gestures and language” during and after the victory. “There is a clear line between passionate competition and unacceptable conduct,” they wrote. “That line was crossed at the Bell Game on Friday, September 11.”
The punishment extends beyond the players themselves. “The decision to suspend the entire team and coaching staff from football activities this week reflects the seriousness with which [the school] holds [their] athletic programs accountable,” the statement continued.
Videos that spread across social platforms captured part of what drew officials’ ire. One clip showed the Jackrabbits mascot prancing along the school track and flipping off the Apple Valley sideline. Another showed the same mascot pushing over the Apple Valley mascot on the sideline. Additional footage appeared to show Victor Valley players throwing up hand signs after the game concluded.
What precisely the football players themselves did beyond the mascot’s antics remains murky. The administrators’ statement did not detail specific player actions, and available social media footage centers on the costumed character’s provocations.
The school’s leadership framed the week-long suspension as an educational opportunity rather than merely punitive. “Over the coming week, school leaders and district administration will work directly with the coaching staff and football team to address what occurred, review our athletic code of conduct, and reinforce the standards required of every student-athlete and coach representing Victor Valley High School,” Coles and Robinson wrote.
They added: “There will be accountability, there will be reflection, and there will be a clear expectation that this cannot happen again.”
The statement also struck a note of institutional pride tempered by responsibility. “We are proud of our student-athletes, but athletic success cannot take precedence over character,” it read. “Our responsibility as educators is not simply to develop better athletes; it is to develop better human beings.”
Coles and Robinson extended a formal apology to Apple Valley High School for their team’s conduct during the rivalry matchup.
The Jackrabbits, located in Victorville about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, will next take the field the Friday after this week. The forfeited game marks a significant sting for a program riding high after capturing the coveted “Bell” trophy from their geographic rivals.
The annual Bell Game has long served as a focal point of local sports culture in the High Desert region, with bragging rights between the two Victorville schools extending far beyond the final score. Friday’s 20-7 victory would typically have cemented months of local supremacy for Victor Valley; instead, the celebration bled into behavior that administrators deemed incompatible with representing the school.
The mascot’s double-barreled offense—both the obscene gesture and the physical takedown of the rival character—appears to have crystallized officials’ concerns about a program losing sight of boundaries. Whether players’ own post-game sign-throwing represented gang-style hand signals, celebratory gestures, or something else entirely has not been clarified by the district.
The suspension lands at a moment of heightened sensitivity around high school sports conduct in California, with administrators increasingly willing to sacrifice competitive standing to enforce behavioral standards. For Victor Valley, that means at least one automatic loss on the record and a week of meetings rather than practice ahead of their return.
The Jackrabbits are scheduled to resume play the Friday following this week.