Three varsity, one JVer dismissed after getting caught in
dugout.
GILROY – Four Gilroy High baseball players were dismissed from the team this week stemming from an incident that occured on school grounds Saturday night.
“They’ve been dismissed from the team for disciplinary action. They won’t be here the rest of the year,” head baseball coach Clint Wheeler said. “I’m not going to go into details, but they just did some things that they shouldn’t have been doing so all three of them are going to be dismissed.”
Since the four involved parties are under the age of 18, their names will not be released – but three of them were on the varsity baseball team and one was on the junior varsity squad.
School disciplinary measures were handed down as well as the team action, according to Athletic Director Jack Daley.
“It’s just disappointing,” said Daley, not wanting to comment further on the issue.
Sources confirmed that the Gilroy High ballplayers acquired a duplicate key to the baseball dugout storage area and on Saturday night decided to gain entry. A school safety officer noticed an unoccupied car parked in the school parking lot and went to investigate. Upon further inspection of school grounds, four males and two females were found inside the baseball dugout.
The varsity unit was only two games into its league schedule – losing both games of a two-game series to Salinas last week.
Wheeler addressed his team about the incident earlier this week.
“We talked about it. I didn’t get into too much detail. I said they’re all your friends you guys can talk to them about what’s going on,” said Wheeler, following the Mustangs’ 4-0 home loss to Hollister on Wednesday. “I just want to make sure we send a message that this is not going to be tolerated around here.”
The varsity squad is down to 13 guys with one junior varsity player already called up. Wheeler said one more may be called up to the varsity – leaving both squads with 14 players.
“I said we can look at it two ways. You can sit here and cry over some spilled milk or you can sit here and not let that be an excuse and keep working hard. I thought we played hard,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t talk about it at all today. Quickly mentioned it yesterday, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I think our problem is just going to be able to play a little baseball.”
