BRIEFLY : O’Connor May Head Pierce Football Team

Pierce College Athletic Director Bob O’Connor apparently will be asked to coach the Brahmas football team in the fall, school President David Wolf said Tuesday.

That is, if Pierce has a football team.

“We’ve made plans to have a football team because I personally believe we will,” Wolf said. “At the moment, it looks like Bob O’Connor will be the coach, but that could change if something comes up.”

Wolf hopes a meeting today of athletic administrators will clear up the future of the Pierce football program, which is threatened by layoffs proposed by the Los Angeles Community College District.

At the meeting, Pierce is expected to support a proposal that would change the district’s faculty union contract to make coaching part of a physical education teacher’s regular course load. The district currently pays coaches with a stipend separate from their base salary as a full-time instructor.

Mission Athletic Director Phil Lozano, a member of the faculty committee that is negotiating with the district board, called the proposal a “lower priority” alternative. Lozano said the committee believes that the proposed layoffs are unnecessary.

In March, the district board voted to issue 143 layoff notices to full-time faculty. Thirty-nine notices were were sent to physical education instructors.

Transfers to other academic disciplines have reduced the number of potential layoffs in the physical education department to fewer than 15, according to Phil Lozano.

If even one full-time faculty member in physical education is laid off, all part-time coaches and staff in physical education would lose their jobs under a provision of the California Education Code.

The layoff of part-time coaches would eliminate more than 100 coaching positions and end about 70% of the athletic programs in the nine-college district, according to figures released by the faculty union.

Formal layoff notices must be issued by the district by May 15.

Swimmers Make Grade to Enter State Finals

In finishing second overall in the Metropolitan Conference swimming finals, Pierce College qualified nine athletes for the state championships that begin today at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla.

Only six or seven, however, will make the trip.

“A couple of the swimmers let their academics slip below our team standards,” Coach Eldin Onsgard said. “We’re not in this for the athletics only.”

Co-captain Norm Skorge, a freshman who was voted Metro Swimmer of the Year by conference coaches, will lead the Pierce delegation. He qualified in five events.

Brent Hermanson, the other freshman co-captain, will take an undefeated record into the 400-meter individual medley. He will also swim in two relays.