THE JCs: DEALING WITH THE LAYOFF : Layoffs will force L. A. junior college coaches to leave just when top-quality players were expected to arrive : First the Good News, Then a Death Notice

When the NCAA tightened eligibility requirements for incoming freshmen at its national convention in January, community college athletics officials anticipated a boon for their programs.

A lot of talented athletes with marginal academic backgrounds would be coming their way, they reasoned.

“I’d like to think that there would be a lot more talent coming into the junior college programs,” said Pierce College basketball Coach Larry Lessett. “It could be a great help.”

If the anticipated hordes of athletes do indeed flock toward community college programs, there may not be many coaches to greet them in the Los Angeles district.

With layoff notices going to 39 physical education instructors and as many as 100 part-time teachers and coaches due to lose their jobs, athletic programs in the district face a crisis.

At the three Valley-area colleges--Pierce, Valley and Mission--at least 20 coaches in 36 sports stand to be fired. As part-time coaches, they must go to clear the way for full-time faculty to be laid off.

The number of full-time coaches that will lose their jobs if the district enacts its proposed layoffs may not be known for at least a month, according to district spokesman Norm Schneider.

“It’s going to cut a program tremendously at most schools,” said Mission Athletic Director Phil Lozano. “I would anticipate that it would probably cut existing programs in half.”

At Mission, three of four coaches for five athletic teams are part-time employees. They stand to lose their jobs.

In addition, Lozano has been instructed to trim his budget for fiscal 1986-87 by $1.3 million--a 25% reduction.

Based on those figures, Lozano has proposed to fund only two athletic teams next year, a move that could cost him his job as an athletic director.

“According to our contract, you need four sports to have an athletic director,” he said. “If I lose my assignment as athletic director, it would affect my salary to the tune of $7,000 to $8,000.”

That prospect has Lozano singing the blues. His only consolation is that he will still have a job.

Doug Dingman, who became Mission’s baseball coach in June, will not.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “When I was hired, I was under the assumption that I would be considered a part-time employee until a full-time position opened up. When that time came, I was assured that I would be the one.”

As a part-time employee, Dingman is paid at an hourly rate for eight to 10 hours a week. He said he puts in between 30 and 40 hours a week.

“Then to hear I’m not going to have a job is a blow, financially as well as career-wise,” Dingman said. “But I’ve got to make a change. I can’t survive on what they can give me.”

Dingman said his disappointment will not affect his performance as a coach. Mission opens its baseball season Thursday.

“I made a commitment, and I am getting paid for this year,” he said. “When you sign a piece of paper, when you’re told you have a job to do, no matter what happens you have to do the best you can do.

“I just don’t want to let the kids down.”

Virgil Watson, basketball coach at Valley, is similarly strapped. His part-time coaching career could lead directly to full-time unemployment next year.

“You can only control so many things in your life, and this is one of the things I can’t control,” he said. “Everybody knew it was coming. I wasn’t surprised.

“The district does certain things to get their job done and we have to do certain things to make our program successful.”

Watson said he wondered what the district board’s reaction would be if its members were closer to athletic programs.

“I don’t know what they have to go through down there or what kind of pressure they’re under, so it’s hard for me to say. But, when you are here and you are at a game, and watch a kid who is playing and you see the sweat on his face, you can empathize with him, because he has worked so hard and played so hard. It’s hard to empathize with a kid if you are sitting downtown.”

So far, the prospect of layoffs hasn’t had an effect on his team, Watson said.

“The guys haven’t said anything about it. If they know anything about it, they read it in the newspaper.

“Now, if they had said they were dropping basketball, period, then we would have something to talk about.”

Times staff writer Derek Raser contributed to this story.