Three-Sport Athletes : They’re disappearing as high school basketball, football and baseball coaches increasingly make conflicting demands in the off-season.

Jim Bonds is a confused--albeit busy--young man.

He is Hart High’s quarterback. But wait a minute, sometime after basketball season begins, and after football season ends, Bonds will be Hart’s point guard. Sometime in February, after basketball season ends, he will be the school’s shortstop.

He’ll play baseball until the end of May. Spring football and spring basketball start at the beginning of June. Bonds alternates between the two off-season sports. Basketball on the odd days, football on the even.

During summer, the whole thing is more clear-cut. He plays basketball in the morning, does football passing leagues in the evening and sleeps with his baseball glove at night.

Next September, he’ll start the cycle

over again. If both his inclination and body hold up.

Bonds is your classic three-sport high school jock. He gets the glory, the girl and the game ball. He rarely gets a rest.

Because high school sports seasons have become longer, and more coaches are conducting off-season training programs that are sometimes mandatory, three-sport athletes are becoming rare.

Said Darryl Stroh, football and baseball coach at Granada Hills: “We used to have a lot more of them. Scheduling is a problem. Football bumps into basketball and basketball bumps into baseball. It’s difficult for a kid to handle.

“When John Elway was here, he played three sports, but he was such an outstanding athlete--he could get away with it. I would have liked to use him as a pitcher, but I didn’t have enough time with him to work on it because he was involved in other sports.

“I think kids can handle two sports. We have a lot of kids who play football and baseball. But if a kid wants to play football and basketball, you’re looking at a month before a kid can go out there. Basketball starts before the football season ends.

“I can remember when we used to have four-sport lettermen, but those days are gone.”

One of Stroh’s two-sport athletes, wide receiver and shortstop Greg Fowble, toyed with the idea of joining the school’s basketball team, but decided against it after attending one practice. He was too busy with football. Besides, he must start working on baseball in December.

“Last year, we played Gardena in the playoffs on a Friday night,” he said, “then the next day we had a winter league baseball game.”

In the City Section, winter baseball runs from December through January. Teams play on Saturday afternoons. Although it is against City rules for players to practice as a team until February, Fowble said players take a baseball class at school and, more or less, practice as a team. It’s permissible because the practice takes place during the school day and it is considered a physical education class.

Such creative curricular scheduling enables an athlete to keep in touch with a sport in the off season.

“Sports are year-round,” said Burbank basketball Coach Russ Keith. “Basketball is year-round. Football is year-round. We have spring practice and summer leagues that conflict with football passing leagues. I expect my players to be with us and the football coach expects his players to be with him. It takes a special athlete to do both.”

Coaches at the same school therefore end up fighting not only for athletes during their respective sports’ seasons, but for athletes’ time during the off season. “The only major sport that overlaps, as far as scheduling is concerned, is football,” said Dean Crowley, an administrator for the Southern Section.

Crowley, however, doesn’t think scheduling is a problem.

“The problem is more that kids are specializing. Coaches . . . have encouraged their kids to specialize. Coaches want their players to play all year. And kids feel pressured to be involved in a program all year.”

Mike Trevathan, a football, soccer and baseball player at Thousand Oaks, agrees with Crowley.

“The coaches have a thing in their eyes for the players they see out there,” he said. “If they don’t see you, they think you’re not working as hard even though you are.

“The coaches push more for the guys who are there all year. . . . In the summer leagues, if you don’t show for games, a coach will think you’re flaking out on him.

“Sometimes I get out of a game in one sport and end up changing uniforms in my car so I can go to another. The coaches don’t know about it. You don’t bring it up with them. I’ve done a little sneaking around.”

According to Crowley, in the early 1970s, coaches were not permitted to be involved with their athletes in any fashion during the summer.

Rules now state that schools cannot promote summer competition and school equipment cannot be used. But a coach, on his own initiative, can assemble his players for competition in a recreational league or an informal league.

Said Crowley: “What they do in the summer, they do on their own. The school assumes no liability. They aren’t covered by school insurance in case of injury.”

There is a growing belief among athletes that if they miss an off-season program--say, football in April--it will hurt them when the season rolls around.

“Some coaches tell them not to go out for other sports,” said George Contreras, football coach at Westlake. “They tell them that if they do, then that will hurt them.

“I’ve heard that some coaches say if you play just my sport--I’ll get you a college scholarship. But scholarships are few and far between. With the numbers game--it’s just not going to happen.”

Conversely, some multi-sport athletes say they are playing as many sports as possible and hoping for a college scholarship in at least one of them.

Other factors that preclude athletes from competing in a variety of sports include academics and jobs.

Last year, as a freshman, Westlake’s Todd Thompson competed in football, wrestling and track. The sophomore halfback says he would like to continue in three sports, but the deciding factor will be whether he can maintain a C average. He said he’s had difficulty in the past finding time to study, what with a big game or match popping up around every corner.

Ed McCarthy, Canoga Park football coach, said there are fewer athletes in all sports because students, besides going to school, are holding down jobs.

“A car is very important to them,” he said. Obviously, a triple double won’t get a kid to the drive-in.

Bonds said he struck a deal with his father: If he kept his grades up and played the sports, his dad would put money up for a car. Bonds, who led the Valley’s Southern Section schools in passing, landed a Datsun 280Z. “But I was in an accident . . . that I don’t want to talk about.” Bonds now drives a Toyota.

Most three-sport athletes say they put up with cramped schedules and the bumps and bruises of yearlong competition simply because it is enjoyable.

Melissa Ingalls, who plays volleyball, basketball and softball at Chaminade, said she sometimes feels like quitting. “I get frustrated keeping up with school. I find myself up at three in the morning doing homework.”

Ingalls is one of the few who will end up with a scholarship. Princeton, Harvard, Pennsylvania and Duke are interested in her volleyball skills and her 3.96 grade-point average.