Prep Review : Irvine Schools Will Fight to Save ADs, Four Teams

The athletic departments and academic administrations at Irvine’s three high schools have decided to fight rather than switch.

Budget cuts are as much a part of public education as classroom instruction, but the Irvine Unified School District board may have caught administrators at University, Woodbridge and Irvine high schools off guard last month when it proposed that the athletic directors and four teams at each school be eliminated.

Here’s the situation: The district must cut $1.6 million from its projected 1985-86 budget because it doesn’t think the state will augment the funding it originally planned for.

Included in the cuts, which are broad-based throughout the elementary, junior high and high schools in the district, is a $55,000 decrease in the high school athletic budget.

The board’s proposal means that University High School’s Steve Scoggin, Woodbridge’s Tom Nelson and Irvine’s Barry Schulenberge would be re-assigned to the classroom during the two periods they receive each day to perform their duties as athletic directors.

They also would lose their annual athletic director stipends (about $3,800 each), and their responsibilities as ADs would have to be absorbed by the school principals. Also, each school would lose four unspecified teams.

Faced with such a dilemma, the three athletic directors, school principals (University’s Bob Bruce, Woodbridge’s Greg Cops and Irvine’s Gary Norton), and booster club presidents joined three parents (one from each school) to form an athletic advisory committee, which met Thursday night.

The committee devised an alternative plan for budget cuts while retaining their athletic directors and the four teams. The committee will propose the plan at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

It will try to persuade the board to cut $55,000 from the high school athletic transportation budget, which is about $75,000 for the three schools.

If accepted, the schools would split the remaining $20,000 from the transportation budget (about $7,000 each) and then charge their respective booster clubs with collecting sufficient funds for transportation to away games. Each school would have to raise $17,000 to $20,000.

“I think our proposal will have a very good chance,” Cops said. “I don’t think the school board or the district office wants to take opportunities away from kids. I think people will rally around this type of proposal.”

Without an athletic director, the principal’s office would be responsible for scheduling games, securing officials and coordinating transportation.

“Some services would have to go, and we’d be spread thin,” Cops said. “I certainly think we need an athletic director at our high school.”

Much of an athletic director’s work is done outside of the office, in the form of attending athletic events and providing support. A principal or vice principal wouldn’t be able to devote that much time to sports.

“This (proposal) was a little unusual to see,” Nelson said. “Most districts are in the same situation as far as cutbacks, but it was a little alarming to see the athletic directors cut. Even though they’ve had similar cuts, most schools in Orange County have two athletic directors (Irvine schools have one).”

The committee’s proposal is a one-year plan that Bruce hopes will lead to local legislation that will ease the schools’ financial burdens.

“We can’t go out and raise that kind of money every year,” Bruce said. “If people really want kids to have opportunities, they’re going to have to pay taxes for them. This should hold us over until we get more money from Sacramento or we get more help from the community via a tax.

“That (a local tax) is about the only thing open to us. We cut the fat from the budget a long time ago with Proposition 13. Now, we’re getting down to the bone.”

Playoff update: The Ocean View High School baseball team, fresh off its 4-1 upset of top-seeded Mater Dei on Friday, will meet Sunset League rival Fountain Valley on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. at Santa Ana College in the semifinals of the Southern Section 4-A tournament.

The Seahawks (21-7) have allowed just three runs in the playoffs, while the Barons (19-9-1) have averaged just more than six runs per game in the tournament. League champion Ocean View won the season series against Fountain Valley, 2-1. Three other Orange County teams also advanced to the semifinals in different divisions and will play Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.

Sunny Hills (23-5), which defeated top-seeded Gahr, 6-5, in the quarterfinals, will meet Lompoc (22-5) in a 3-A game at Anaheim’s Brookhurst Park. Mission Viejo (19-7), a 1-0 winner over Santa Clara, plays Mountain View (15-8-1) in a 2-A game at UC Irvine. Orange Lutheran (15-9), which defeated Blair, 2-0, will meet Baldwin Park (18-10) in a 1-A game at Orange’s Hart Park.

Orange County softball teams have fared extremely well in the playoffs, as both the 4-A and 3-A division semifinals Tuesday at 3 p.m. will feature county matchups.

Undefeated and top-seeded Ocean View (30-0) will send ace Jackie Oakley against fourth-seeded Cypress (25-5-1) and pitcher, Nicky Luce, in one 4-A game at Arnold Park in La Palma, while Westminster pitcher Debbie DeJohn will square off against Edison’s Julie Carpenter at Golden West College.

The Lions (22-9) beat third-seeded Newbury Park in the quarterfinals, while the Chargers (26-9), a wild-card entrant, upset second-seeded Kennedy and then beat San Marcos in the quarterfinals.

In 3-A action, La Quinta (22-6) will meet Sonora (15-7) at Westminster’s McFadden Park, and Garden Grove (20-7) plays Woodbridge (18-3) at Huntington Beach’s Edison Park. Mission Viejo (15-4) will go against Chino (20-2) in a 2-A semifinal at Mission Viejo’s Alicia Park.

Down, maybe out: Tom Lewis, the Mater Dei basketball star who will play at USC next year, recently sprained his ankle during a pickup game at UC Irvine and may miss the Orange County North-South All-Star game June 22 at Orange Coast College.

Lewis, who led the Monarchs to an undefeated season (28-0) and the Southern Section 5-A championship in March, had been playing with members of the UCI basketball team four days a week until about two weeks ago, when he stepped on another player’s foot and twisted his ankle.

Doctors diagnosed the injury as a medium sprain and placed the ankle in a walking cast, which was removed Thursday. Lewis said he should be playing again within two weeks, but he still may miss the All-Star game.

“It’s not real serious, but if it’s not 100%, I’m not gonna go on it,” said Lewis, who was on crutches for several days following the accident. “This is kind of like a vacation. I needed a break, and this forced me to take one.”

Backs to the (Great) Wall: Jim Patterson, athletic director at Esperanza, will take a baseball team to China this summer to compete in a series of exhibitions against the Chinese National Team.

Patterson will coach the team, which will consist of 18 players from Cypress College and Esperanza, El Dorado and Loara high schools. They are tentatively scheduled to play four doubleheaders in Peking and Shanghai from July 14-24 and will take a day to tour the Great Wall of China at Shanghai.

The players include Cypress College’s Jim Patterson, Jr., Jeff Nicks, Ed Evans and Mark Mohler, Esperanza’s Steve Halweg, Dave Morales, Greg Haskell, Pete Morris, Tom Reddington and Ron McMillian, Loara’s Sean Angotti, Mike Golia, Tim Hopper, Dale Kojac and Carlos Vargas, and El Dorado’s Rob Sporrer and Doug Sipple.

Prep Notes

Former Cypress three-sport athlete Dave Shermet hit a two-run home run Saturday night to help the University of Arizona defeat Fresno State, 10-3, in the NCAA West II regional championship game to give the Wildcats a berth in the College World Series this week at Omaha. Shermet, a freshman, played football, soccer and baseball for the Centurions last year, but his decision to concentrate on one sport in college has paid off. He’s been a starter in the Wildcat outfield for most of the season. He played outfield, catcher and shortstop during his three-year varsity baseball career at Cypress. . . . Former Villa Park baseball star Dave Leeper, who plays outfield for the Kansas City Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha, was named Player of the Week in the American Assn. for the week ending May 19. Leeper, 25, batted .435 with 4 home runs and 8 RBIs, including 2 homers and 6 RBIs in the Royals’ 17-3 win over the Buffalo Bisons on May 16. . . . The fifth Butch Carter-El Toro basketball camp for boys and girls from the 3rd to 12th grades is scheduled for July 29-Aug. 2 at El Toro High. Carter, a guard for the New York Knicks, will host the camp along with Charger Coach Tim Travers. Special guests scheduled to appear include former Cal State Fullerton All-American and Olympic gold medalist Leon Wood and Ron Holmes, a member of USC’s Pacific 10 championship team. For more information, contact the Saddleback Valley Unified School District’s recreation department at 586-1234. . . . Hi Lavalle of Canyon has been selected to coach the North team and Bob Ickes of Mater Dei will coach the South in the 18th Orange County All-Star baseball game scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, at Glover Stadium in Anaheim. . . . The Santa Ana High basketball team will be one of 24 teams from 8 states to compete in the South Lake Tahoe High School Summer Tournament July 12-16. Coach Greg Coombs said the Saints will fly to Lake Tahoe on Friday, July 12, play in the tournament over the weekend and then travel to Sacramento to tour the state capital on Monday, July 15. They will return on Tuesday. . . . Kris Rokosz of Troy was named the Player of the Year by the Freeway League softball coaches. The senior batted .450 and compiled a 6-3-1 record as a pitcher. . . . Orange Athletic Director Dave Zirkle is searching for a team to fill the 16-team Orange Holiday basketball tournament scheduled for Dec. 26-30. Interested parties should contact Zirkle at 997-6236.