BELLAIRE, Texas — Community activists are demanding that Bellaire High School baseball coach Nick Ozuna be fired over allegations involving racist taunts by his players.
HISD is investigating after players and parents from Westbury High School said a Black pitcher and other players of color were targeted by the Bellaire bench.
Editor's note: The video above originally aired on March 30, 2022.
Ozuna's attorney said he's been put on leave, but activists want him out.
"We are displeased, we are appalled, and we are highly upset," Dr. Candice Matthews, with the Rainbow Push Coalition, said Friday at a news conference.
"While he was pitching, he could hear some of the Bellaire players making monkey sounds," Quannel X said. "He was looking at the dugout and they were scratching and acting like a monkey and making monkey sounds. This was right in front of the Bellaire High School coach."
The activist said a minority player on Bellaire's team told his teammates to stop, but they ignored him and Coach Ozuna didn't say anything.
When an umpire told the players to cut it out, Quannel said Ozuna yelled at him.
"You don't talk to my players, I talk to my players. You talk to me," the coach shouted at the ump, according to Quannel.
He said when the players chanted, "I got bananas, I got bananas, I got bananas," and things got heated between parents from both teams, the ump ended the game.
The father of the Westbury pitcher was "enraged," according to Quannel, and confronted the Bellaire coaching staff in the parking lot. HISD police officers stepped in before things escalated.
One player was suspended for one game, according to Quannel, but he thinks the coach needs to go.
"When it comes to him teaching young men how to be morally respectable of others, respectable of coaches, don't show bias toward the race. The man is bankrupt, in my opinion. He can't teach that," Quannel said. "And that 's more important than teaching a kid how to swing at a baseball."
HISD confirmed it's investigating the incident.
Some Westbury players are considering legal action.
"All options are on the table. The family is very disappointed, they're distraught," attorney Kevin Murray said.
The Bellaire booster club had scheduled its own news conference Friday to defend the coach but it was postponed.
But Stephen Karpas defended Ozuna, who coached his son for several years. Karpas believes the allegations are being taken out of context.
"I'm fully aware of his character, how he treats every kid," Karpas said. "We’ve never seen anything but fair, balanced treatment out of coach Ozuna."
Ozuna's attorney, Levi J. Benton, released the following statement earlier this week.
"We look forward to HISD completing its investigation and reinstating Coach Ozuna as soon as possible. Coach Ozuna has coached at Bellaire High School for 18 years and has more than demonstrated his love for all his players, opposing coaches and teams. Any allegation that he condoned any racial slur is false. Any allegation that Coach Ozuna has any racial animus is false. We have no further statement at this time."