The Bishop Manogue Catholic High School girls basketball team in Nevada finished with a 26-1 record on the year. But somehow, this miraculous season led to Sara Schopper-Ramirez being fired. And recently, she explained the awful series of events that led to this decision.
In a conversation with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Schopper-Ramirez detailed a meeting that she recorded back in August with school President Matthew Schambari and Athletic Director Frank Lazarak.
In the meeting, Schopper-Ramirez was warned by Schambari about the “brown kids” attending the school on scholarship receiving more playing time than the white players on the team.
“I think that we’ve got to be super intentional about not supporting or creating a narrative where it looks like,” A man was heard saying on the recording. “Oh we’re bringing in, we are paying to bring in these brown kids to come win us basketball games and the white kids don’t get to play.”
In a statement to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Schopper-Ramirez said that she simply played her best players, which simultaneously led to the team’s success, and ultimately her firing in her belief.
“I played my best players this season,” Schopper-Ramirez told the RGJ. “I have not even researched who has scholarships. I played the players that work hard and get the job done.”
Obviously, this is an incredibly bad look for both the school president and the athletic director. And luckily, both were reprimanded pretty severely.
Frank Lazarak recently stepped down from his role after this story emerged. And Matthew Schambari went on voluntary unpaid leave.
Unfortunately, the ones who may suffer from this the most are the players at Bishop Manogue Catholic High School, as they will now be without a great head coach who was very clearly fired unjustly.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.