Surplus in Service : Youth Sports Programs Begin to Receive Olympic Profit

In North Hollywood, 21 Little League teams were able to afford new uniforms and equipment after their storage room was burglarized. In Simi Valley, more than 1,000 elementary school students received new softballs, volleyball nets and an electronic timer for a Junior Olympics competition.

And over the next two years, $8.2 million more will rain upon youth athletic organizations in Southern California. Their benefactor: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, an event critics predicted would fail financially but has instead meant a windfall for amateur sports.

Since December 46 grants from the Olympic surplus, totaling almost $2.8 million, have been approved by the Los Angeles-based Amateur Athletic Foundation for projects ranging from Little League baseball to wheelchair tennis in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties.

The contract that brought the Olympics to Los Angeles designated 40% of the Games’ profits to the U.S. Olympic Committee, 20% to U.S. sports federations and 40% to youth sports in the Southland. The athletic foundation was formed to disburse the youth sports funds.

The 19-member foundation board, which eventually will control $90 million of the $235-million surplus from the ’84 Games, includes baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Mayor Tom Bradley.

The Valley area will benefit from at least 10 of the foundation’s grants:

In December, the Community Youth Gang Services received $349,990 to open six sports clubs for gang members and potential gang members.

One club will be constructed in Pacoima, according to Gary Freeman, who is in charge of sports programs for the gang services group. “Our job is to prevent gang membership as opposed to going out and getting gang members,” Freeman said. “If they are in a gang, they have to drop that identity when they come to us.”

Organizers will begin to plan the club in June, although a site has not been found. “The idea is to have activities and events to keep the kids involved in the club,” Freeman said. “We’re looking to occupy some of their time and teach them how to play in a noncombative atmosphere. By being part of the club, they identify with us instead of a gang. Their need to be recognized as part of a group is met.”

The Southern California Tennis Assn. received $80,000 to establish 22 six-week tennis instruction programs for youths aged 10 to 18 from low-income families. Sign-ups will begin this month at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Center, Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Center and the Studio City Recreation Center.

The Sylmar Independent Baseball League received $5,000 of a $7,000 grant awarded to the Foothill Division of the Police Athletic League. A judo program at Stonehurst Park in Sunland received the rest of the police group’s money.

In March, the Boys Club of America received $201,200 to install team handball, mini-handball and mini-soccer facilities at 30 of its 100 locations in Southern California. Boys and girls clubs in Pacoima, Oxnard, Point Hueneme, Camarillo, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and the Santa Clarita Valley are being considered for the money.

The National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis received a grant of $53,000, enabling it to add Cal State Northridge, Cal State Dominguez Hills and UC Santa Barbara to the four facilities it operates in Orange County. CSUN will play host to three one-week sports camps for wheelchair-bound youths, beginning in August. Campers will be able to participate in archery, weightlifting, basketball and track and field.

The Management Team, a promotional organization, received $38,865 to operate two one-day football skills clinics June 21-22 at Birmingham High. About 2,000 freshmen, sophomores and juniors from all 49 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are expected to attend the clinics. Among those expected to instruct at the camp are several members of the Los Angeles Raiders.

The North Valley Athletic Club, the San Val Little League, the Thousand Oaks Little League and the Simi Valley PTA Council received $5,000 each.

“They have all been doing so much for their communities for such a long time and they needed a little financial boost,” said Judith Pinero, a spokesman for the foundation, about the four groups. “Theirs is the type of dedication that truly makes a great youth sports program go.”

Without assistance from the foundation, San Val would have gone deeply into debt because of a burglary earlier this year, according to Frank Fazio, an official of the North Hollywood organization. “We have an equipment room and somebody broke in and stole just about everything worth stealing--bats, uniforms, everything,” he said.

The grant money has lifted the league’s financial burden substantially. “We were going to have to take out a huge loan,” Fazio said. “We’re still a little in the hole, but that’s normal. We should have everything paid up by the end of the year.”

The Simi Valley PTA Council used the Olympic money to purchase basketballs, softballs, volleyball nets, tape measures, stop watches, walkie-talkies and an electronic timer for its Junior Olympics program. More than 1,000 students from 21 elementary schools competed May 3 at Simi Valley High.

“We used to have to beg, borrow and steal to provide the schools with equipment they needed,” said Judy Barry, president of the council. “Now we have equipment for all the schools to train with all year round.”

Pinero said the foundation was impressed with the Thousand Oaks Little League’s work with another league in the area to renovate its playing field.

“Good sports programs are born out of strong community support,” Pinero said. “We tend to help the organizations who work hard to help themselves.”

An 11th organization may also bring Olympic funds to the area. The Southern California Badminton Assn. received $51,000 to organize six badminton playing centers in Southern California. The group has plans for three sites in Los Angeles, one in Riverside, one in Orange County and another in Altadena. It plans to put one at Pierce or Valley colleges if one of the other sites is unavailable.

Most of the money the foundation will spend in grants during its first two years will come from interest and investment income. Only a few hundred thousand dollars of the original surplus will be used. After the two-year period ends in December, 1987, the foundation’s spending schedule will be re-evaluated and adjusted.

Organizations can obtain grant guidelines and instructions on preparing a proposal by writing the foundation’s office in Los Angeles. The grant committee next meets June 12.