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SoCal Prep & High School Report

More Misbehavior: Drew Stewart
Suspended For Season--(February 12, 1998)

What is it lately at the end of the season that's gotten into people? Are things that intense that players have to express their anger by punching other kids in the face or in the groin, that fans have to riot after a game, or that a player fires a bullet pass at the refs just because his team lost? Time for everyone to take a deep breath, calm down, and realize that this is just a game. Chill.

Yesterday's LA Times featured a report about Drew Stewart, a two-year starter on the Westlake High boys' basketball team, who was suspended from the team for the rest of the season, Coach Gary Grayson said Tuesday. Grayson said Stewart, a 6'-2" senior forward, was suspended for throwing a ball in the direction of two referees after Westlake's 59-57 loss to Thousand Oaks on Jan. 28.

Stewart was averaging 8.7 points and 3.4 rebounds. He allegedly was upset because no foul was called in the closing seconds of the game after teammate Joey Cuppari tried to foul a Thousand Oaks player to stop the clock. Grayson originally suspended Stewart for one game, but school administrators got into the act and suspended Stewart from school for three days. Grayson said that suspended students at Westlake can be made ineligible for athletic competition for one year.

"I was surprised because all of a sudden Drew fired the ball across the court in a straight line in the direction of the referees," Grayson said. "It was a line drive. I was stunned."

Grayson said that David Graber, Westlake's assistant principal, intercepted the ball. Stewart refused comment. His mother, Sharon, said he threw the ball in the direction of the referees, but that the ball bounced three or four times before it got near them. "What Drew did was wrong," she said. "But he didn't deserve to be suspended for the rest of the season."