TEAM'S ANTHEM ACTIVITY IRKS FANS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

If anyone thinks ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' has lost some of its patriotic, emotional clout in this country, they should have been at Chatsworth High School on Friday night for the homecoming football game with Taft High School.

A number of people who were there think the national anthem got dissed, and they're still pretty mad about it.

Here's what happened. You decide.

The anthem normally is played about five minutes before kickoff, after both teams have completed their warm-ups. But Friday night it was sung about 10 minutes early because of all the scheduled pregame homecoming activities.

About 6:45 p.m., the public-address announcer asked everyone to rise for the singing of the national anthem. Fans on both sides of the field heard the announcement and stood up.

The referees heard the announcement and stood at attention on the sidelines. Chatsworth High's players took their helmets off, and they also stood at attention with their coaches.

Taft High's defensive players also took their helmets off and stood at attention on the sidelines. But on the field, Taft's offensive team continued running plays and warming up as the anthem was being sung a cappella by a Chatsworth High student in front of a microphone nearby.

This drew a chorus of boos and jeers from parents on the Chatsworth side who said they couldn't believe it when Taft's coaches told their players to keep warming up.

``People were yelling, Rude, rude! and screaming at the Taft coach to stop,'' said Chatsworth parent Kim Ponther. ``Anyone in America knows that when you play the anthem at a sporting event like this, you stop whatever you're doing and show respect for the flag and country.''

Janet Skinner, who has grandchildren attending Chatsworth High, called the scene discouraging.

``I was a nurse during World War II, and saw what our kids sacrificed,'' she said. ``So to see these kids continue practicing while the national anthem was being sung was very disheartening.

``People were yelling, Stop - get them off the field! The kids had their helmets on, so I thought maybe they didn't hear the anthem being sung. But their coaches didn't have any helmets on.''

Sue Lepisto, acting principal at Taft High, said Wednesday that she questioned head football coach Troy Starr about the incident after the school received several complaints Monday from angry Chatsworth High parents.

``The anthem was being sung early, a cappella, without the band, and the speakers were not poised on the field,'' she said. ``He was aware there was singing going on, but not aware that this was the actual `Star-Spangled Banner' because it's normally played at 6:55 p.m., after the normal pregame practice time. This was a very unusual situation.

``If we had been made aware the anthem was going to be played early, we would have stopped. But our coaches were focused on warming up, and did not recognize this was the playing of `The Star-Spangled Banner' until it was too late. It was unfortunate, and not done deliberately.''

Tom Stevenson, one of the Taft coaches on the field during the singing of the anthem, added there also was a safety issue involved.

``We have a certain amount of minutes to warm up,'' he said. ``Are we supposed to stop what we were doing and not allow our guys to warm up properly?''

For the national anthem, which takes about a minute to a minute and a half to sing, the answer is yes, said David Donner, whose wife is a teacher at Chatsworth High.

``The stadium is not that big, and the speakers were going full blast, so you couldn't miss that this was `The Star-Spangled Banner' being sung,'' Donner said.

``The coach couldn't stop his team (from warming up) for one minute? Come on.''

Dan Wyett, principal at Chatsworth High, was out of the office and unavailable for comment Wednesday, but Greg Lee, an assistant principal, said students at the school came to him later, upset that Taft continued to practice during the anthem.

While city football section rules state that the anthem is to be played between 6:50 and 7 p.m., Lee said it is not unusual that there would be an adjustment in the timing of pregame activities at a homecoming game because so much is going on.

Lee doubted Taft High was notified beforehand that the anthem would be sung earlier than usual, but it was loud and pretty hard to miss once it started, he added.

``A group of Taft people were having a little pregame dinner outside the stadium, and they stopped eating to observe the anthem because they heard it being sung inside the stadium,'' Lee said.

Bill Coan, Chatsworth High's head football coach, said Wednesday that he did not think Starr was being disrespectful, and that coaches are often intensely focused on how their team is practicing and warming up for a game.

Maybe, but it's hard to believe anyone could block out a whole stadium standing up and paying tribute to a ``Star-Spangled Banner'' being sung loudly enough to be heard by people outside the stadium.

By the way, Taft won the game 27-25 to remain undefeated.