On Tuesday, Sylmar High baseball coach Ray Rivera made a sad announcement: He told people that his program’s storage bin had been broken into and several important pieces of equipment had been stolen. All things that he had worked tirelessly to accumulate and used – as many coaches do – on his own time to provide the best circumstances possible for the boys in his program. A lawn mower. A golf cart. A charger. A compressor. All gone.

Ray Rivera as a player was known for his competitiveness. “Ray is a foxhole brother,” a friend says. “The guy you want [with you] in the alley,” if there is trouble. As a coach, he’s produced tough, gritty, fundamentally sound teams that typically fare well against competition that has more resources at their disposal. And he’s been loyal; he’s been a coach and special education teacher at Sylmar for nearly 20 years.

Sylmar is located in a blue-collar, working-class area in the east San Fernando Valley. Many of his players come from families that don’t have money to spare and it’s taken years to build up the tools that were stolen. It also feels like a personal blow to a man who has dedicated so much of his life to his school and community. The act was “like a slap in the face when our own people (our community) take from you,” Rivera wrote on Twitter. “It really is disappointing. It’s bad enough we can’t play and now someone does this.”