An alert went out to students and parents that the scheduled girl’s golf tryouts were canceled on Tuesday, Aug. 15. Tryouts were scheduled for later that day, but at 4:14 p.m., it was announced by RCHS principal Mr. Azande Aikens that the tryouts would be rescheduled for a different date. This was a very short notice announcement and as a result of the sudden change of plans, it led to some students wondering why the tryouts were canceled. 

Initially, the golf tryouts were scheduled to be held at the Sierra Lakes Golf Club in Fontana, a course that RCHS has frequented in previous years. 

It came out later that day that the tryouts were canceled because of a safety concern at Sierra Lakes. Shortly before the tryouts were scheduled to begin, there was a shooting at Sierra Lakes, which involved an off-duty LA county police officer who had been fatally shot by Fontana police. 

“It’s always been a pleasant, and safe environment – a place where you wouldn’t think something like that would happen,” Mr. Dale Rogers, the RCHS golf coach said.

Rogers also said that he had his equipment bag shot while he was at the golf course setting up for the tryouts.

After the incident, RCHS admin met to discuss student safety at all sporting events. 

“We have a lot of new safety protocols that we’re implementing in place. If you come to the football game next Thursday, you’ll be able to see them in action,” RCHS principal Mr. Azande Aikens said. “These new safety protocols will also be sent to visiting teams for all sports, and for all sporting events hosted at Rancho.”

Aikens also explained that he intended full transparency and that he fully believed in the importance of student safety, and students’ awareness of what to do in case of an emergency. Students did not go to the golf course on the day of the incident, and golf try-outs were held at RCHS out of an abundance of caution. After careful consideration, RCHS admin and Rogers deemed that it would be safe for the team to continue using Sierra Lakes for the season. 

“There’s some re-assessing we did to make sure and considering it was such a rare event, we talked about it to Sierra Lakes and administration and we’ve been back since,” Rogers said. “That golf course has been around for a very long time and nothing like that has ever happened there before.”

Tryouts were later rescheduled and held at the school.