Harry Frezza

@thefrez56

Bananas that North Plainfield High School football players found on the locker room door in Summit on Saturday afternoon wasn't a racially insensitive prank but something of a good luck charm for the home team, Summit Schools Superintendent Nathan Parker said Tuesday.

The practice of placing a banana in the door knob hole was started by players last year "to reduce teams looking in or overhearing each other," Parker said in a prepared statement. "It went on to be considered good luck when Summit won a state championship last season. One of Summit's players began this practice again on Saturday. The North Plainfield team interpreted the action as a racial taunt. However, this was not the intent."

"After Summit's head coach, Kevin Kostibos, raised the concern of the banana in the door with the team, one of the players immediately acknowledged that he had placed it there," Parker wrote. "The player explained the past practice of blocking the view between the locker rooms and also the superstition of good luck. There was no intent on this player's part to taunt the other team."

"Racism is unacceptable," Parker added. "We do not tolerate it in our schools, on our fields or in our community. One of Summit's greatest assets is its diverse community, something that we truly value. While the nature of this act was misunderstood, the fact that others felt targeted is taken very seriously."

North Plainfield Assistant Superintendent of Schools Robert Rich said Summit officials told him the prank was a "misunderstanding."

"The problem I have about it is that I don't know what was in the player's minds when they did it. Where they really trying to intimidate our team? I don't know. I don't know the kids. It's very difficult for me to get my hands around the whole thing," Rich said "We have been told that it wasn't done with malicious intent. But some of our players interpreted it as being malicious."

UPDATE: Another mostly black team saw bananas at Summit High

Steve Timko, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association executive director, said the state association also would like to hear more about what happened Saturday. Both schools have been asked to submit reports of their investigations to the association's Robbinsville headquarters by the end of Friday's workday.

"Violations to the sportsmanship policy are submitted to the department of civil rights. Once we receive the information we will make a determination of what our next course of action will be. It could be the possibility of a controversy hearing," Timko said.

Timko said he would not speculate about possible penalties.

"If it went to a hearing, it would be something to be discussed as part of the hearing and not something that would be predetermined at this point," he said.

Timko said schools have dealt internally with prior controversies, and North Plainfield coach Bobby Lake said Monday's junior varsity game between North Plainfield and Summit was canceled by mutual accord.

In his statement released Tuesday afternoon, Parker said:

"It has been reported that there were banana peels on the floor in the visitor's locker room. We have investigated this incident and this is not the case. Summit Athletic Director Bob Lockhart, led the North Plainfield coaches and team managers into the locker room and the floor was clean.

"The Summit coaches and administration have discussed the inappropriate nature of this act with the team," he said. "There was no intent to be insulting to the North Plainfield football players, and we apologize that they were made to feel that way. It is unfortunate that we have an opening in the locker room door, and I have directed that the door be fixed immediately.''

Of the 51 players on North Plainfield's varsity roster, 27 are African-American, according to North Plainfield coach Bobby Lake.

One of those players, senior J.T. Valley, a standout two-way lineman and captain, said that as North Plainfield prepared to take the field prior to the game, someone shoved bananas through a hole in the door.

"We took it out. Somebody put another one in. We took it out again," Valley said. "We were very offended. But all I wanted to do was get back to playing football."

North Plainfield senior lineman Charles Thomas, another captain, said he was angered by what he saw. But said he had a responsibility to make very sure his teammates behaved throughout the game. He said officials came into the Canucks' locker room before the game to remind them of sportsmanlike conduct, and among the topics discussed was discrimination.

"I was really shocked; our school is very diverse, and we don't have this kind of stuff," said Thomas, who is black. "We were all offended. Our team was angry. We are like brothers. We don't see anybody as being better than the other. We're all the same. We're all people."

Game officials also have been asked to file reports. Once the NJSIAA has gathered and reviewed sufficient additional information — at which time it will issue a further statement — it will have the option of referring the matter to its Controversies Committee for additional investigation.

Last winter, eight Phillipsburg High School wrestlers were dismissed from the team after a photo surfaced of them apparently simulating a lynching. The wrestlers were banned from the state individual tournament and suspended from school for three days.

The picture showed them in wrestling gear surrounding a black wrestling dummy wearing a rival Paulsboro High School T-shirt and hanging from a noose. The photo, which was taken after the team won the NJSIAA Group IV state championship also showed two of the boys with the hoods on their sweatshirts.

"We also had a case last year where there were fans that went to a game and some inappropriate things took place, and it was dealt with between the schools, and those people weren't allowed back to athletic events, as an example," Timko said. "Whether to say something more serious would happen would come through the committee process."

Staff Writer Harry Frezza: 732-565-7363; hfrezza@mycentraljersey.com

Staff Writers Sergio Bichao, Jerry Carino and Everett Merrill contributed to this report