Some School Administrators Can’t Live With Them . . . : WALK-ONS : . . . But All Too Often, They Can’t Manage Without Them : Although Coaches Who Aren’t Teachers Can Cause Problems, They Also Can Provide Quick Solutions

One Orange County high school athletic director describes walk-on coaches, the non-faculty instructors who are hired to fill coaching voids, as “the bane of my existence.”

Others say they’re a boon to athletics.

Walk-ons are, at once, a blessing and a blemish on coaching staffs. They are needed; many schools wouldn’t be able to field so many teams without them. But they are not necessarily wanted. Given a choice, most athletic directors would rather have a full-time faculty member coaching.

Are walk-ons problems or solutions? There’s no definitive answer, and cases can be made for both.

But this much is clear: Walk-ons are a prominent part of high school athletics and will continue to be.

The Southern Section has about 4,700 walk-on coaches, almost half of the total, and that number is likely to increase as more faculty coaches retire and new coaches are needed.

The majority of walk-ons are varsity assistants or lower-level team coaches, but walk-ons are rapidly infiltrating the varsity head-coaching ranks. A poll of Orange County schools shows that 363 of 1,093 head varsity coaches (33%) are walk-ons.

Most affected are girls’ sports, in which 43% of the varsity coaches are walk-ons. The so-called major sports--football, basketball and baseball--are still coached predominantly by full-time teachers (91%), but walk-ons are heading 33% of the county’s boys’ minor-sports teams. Of the county’s 91 varsity soccer coaches, 60 (66%) are walk-ons.

The dependence on walk-ons has created a myriad of problems for high school administrators.

Walk-ons are not teachers. They are firefighters, police officers, plumbers and real-estate agents. They are painters, lifeguards and maintenance workers. Many are college students.

They arrive on campus after school and are gone after practice. They can’t scour physical education classes for prospective team members. They can’t offer guidance or counseling to students during the school day. They can’t easily check a student’s grades or monitor his academic progress.

Because they are walk-ons, they are not an integral part of the educational process. And that worries administrators.

“With walk-ons, it’s like you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Dennis Evans, Corona del Mar principal. “It’s not their fault, but they just don’t always know the rules or the philosophy of athletics as well as teacher-coaches. And they don’t know the kids as well, because they don’t see them in the total concept of the school.”

Under State Board of Education rules, walk-ons must complete courses in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and adolescent psychology before becoming head coaches. They must have some previous coaching experience, such as time spent as a youth coach or student assistant.

In addition, most school districts and athletic directors meet with walk-ons to discuss Southern Section rules, administrative duties, coaching philosophy, and handling of certain emergency situations.

But sometimes the training isn’t enough to avoid problems:

- Fred Gale, the El Modena girls’ athletic director, fired one soccer coach for taking team members to a pizza parlor and serving them beer, and another for dating team members.

- Pat O’Donnell, the La Habra boys’ athletic director, suspended his junior varsity baseball team, coached by a 21-year-old walk-on, for two weeks because the players were involved in several bench-clearing brawls.

- Bonnie Stormont, the Marina girls’ athletic director, had to pay a $75 penalty because one of her walk-ons didn’t order a bus for an away game in time. Stormont also had to explain to her principal how $500 worth of equipment was ordered by a walk-on without her approval.

- Former pro football player Cedrick Hardman--who told a reporter in 1985, “I don’t know all the CIF rules. It’s annoying how many people are more concerned with reading the fine print than winning”--became head football coach at Laguna Beach.

(Hardman was arrested for cocaine possession last fall, was suspended without pay from his coaching duties and will not be rehired.)

Administrators say there are plenty of excellent walk-on coaches. But there are plenty of problems, too.

“There’s obviously a great need to upgrade the services and skills of our walk-on coaches,” said Stan Thomas, Southern Section commissioner.

Dave Colville, Villa Park boys’ athletic director, offered this solution: “My personal feeling is that if you can’t find an on-staff teacher to coach, you shouldn’t field a team in that sport. Overall, walk-ons cause more problems than they do good.”

Nevertheless, two varsity teams at Villa Park are headed by walk-ons. O’Donnell, whose school has three walk-on varsity coaches, shares Colville’s philosophy, but the two are in the minority.

Most administrators have resigned themselves to living with walk-ons because there are few alternatives. They can only hope to improve the situation.

The emergence of walk-ons can be attributed to several factors, the most prominent one being the natural attrition of on-staff coaches. For whatever reasons--burnout, family commitments, job offers from community colleges or colleges, outside employment interests--coaches resign.

But they usually don’t quit teaching. So athletic directors have coaching openings to fill, not teaching openings.

For this, they can thank Proposition 13 and, in some cases, declining enrollment.

Proposition 13, a state constitutional amendment that placed a ceiling on property taxes in 1978, reduced the amount of local money that schools could use to hire full-time teachers. Also, districts that are experiencing declining enrollments are in the process of cutting back educational expenditures, not expanding.

“You can’t put your finger on any one thing and say that’s the main reason,” said Stan Clark, Westminster boys’ athletic director. “It’s a combination of several things.”

Some administrators are taking measures to slow the proliferation of walk-ons. For instance, Kennedy Athletic Director Tom Wallace said that in the past three years, his administration has hired only teachers who are interested in coaching.

The Capistrano Unified School District began offering teachers an incentive of $1,000 to coach two sports teams. Bill Rolfe, athletic director at Capistrano Valley, has proposed implementation of another bonus program, whereby teachers can earn an additional $1,000 after five years.

According to Judy Moeller, Santa Ana Valley girls’ athletic director, to teach physical education at the school, you must coach a sport.

Many principals have been advertising joint teacher-coaching positions, such as English teacher/baseball coach, or science teacher/volleyball coach. When they do have openings for teachers, they are looking for candidates who can make a commitment to extracurricular activities.

This will help at some schools but will hardly alter the big picture. There will still be thousands of walk-ons in the years to come.

The Southern Section can do nothing to decrease the number of walk-ons, but it has been taking steps to improve the quality of its non-faculty coaches.

The Southern Section and the L.A. City Section are involved in a pilot project in conjunction with the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, which has donated $30,000 to the sections to stage coaching clinics in track and field in two leagues--the Moore League in Long Beach and the Marine League in San Pedro.

Stanton Wheeler, president of the AAF, said that if the programs work out (they’ll be evaluated this summer), the foundation may undertake a $1-million coaching clinic program with the CIF throughout Southern California. The funds would come from Southern California’s $90-million share of the 1984 Olympic surplus, part of which has been earmarked for area youth programs.

If the CIF receives the grant, Thomas said he will use the funds to develop a program that will enhance the training of walk-ons in all sports. He hopes to have mentor coaches--either retired high school coaches or college coaches who have excelled in a sport for many years--conduct clinics for walk-ons.

“We’d like to bring in fine people from the section who could share their knowledge and expertise,” Thomas said. “We want to create a program with ongoing substance and upgrade skills each year. I’d also like to tie the classes in with college credit and pay the coaches for attending.”

This will help, but two of the biggest problems with walk-ons--turnover and their absence during the school day--are virtually impossible to resolve.

The six-school Huntington Beach Union High School District has trained more than 500 walk-on coaches in the past four years.

Marina has had six boys’ cross-country coaches in the past eight years, and four wrestling coaches in the past five years.

Ocean View has had three boys’ cross-country coaches in the past four years, three boys’ tennis coaches in the past four years, and three boys’ swim coaches in the past four years.

“It’s a changing cast of characters from one year to the next, and sometimes during the year,” said Steve Hiskey, Brea-Olinda boys’ athletic director.

This obviously impairs a school’s efforts to build a successful program. The situation at Marina provides a good case study of the walk-on versus staff coach.

For five straight years, under the direction of four different walk-ons, the Viking wrestling team finished last in the Sunset League. Andy Donegan, Marina athletic director, remembers matches when the Vikings had six wrestlers for the varsity and junior varsity meets. There are 13 weight classes.

This year, staff teacher Paul LaBlanc took over, and Marina finished third in league. The Vikings had 39 wrestlers to fill the varsity and junior varsity rosters and 50 freshmen out for the program.

“You can see the difference of having a guy on campus who can recruit,” Donegan said. “We now have someone who can communicate with kids and go to P.E. classes to find prospective team members. It’s a disaster when you have a walk-on.”

That’s no fault of the walk-on, who usually has other job or school demands during the day. This causes headaches for athletic directors, who are sometimes forced to handle a walk-on’s administrative responsibilities, such as scheduling, transportation, ordering uniforms and equipment.

But, ultimately, it’s the students who suffer most.

“We would like for our kids to have the best opportunity they can, and that’s not always the case with a walk-on,” said Tim Mennealy, Ocean View athletic director.

But as Bill Boswell, Huntington Beach district athletic director, said: “Walk-ons are better than no programs.”

Perhaps, Dave Auxier, Los Amigos athletic director, summed it up best.

“They’ve tried everything they can to make this (walk-on) program work, but it’s just inherently difficult,” he said.

“We’re fighting an uphill battle.”

WHAT THEY DO OFF THE FIELD

Coach School Sport Carlos Arce El Toro Boys’ soccer Sid Bradshaw San Clemente Boys’ soccer Gary Blate Loara Girls’ basketball John Boston La Quinta Football (assistant) Walt Bowman Canyon Boys’ soccer Paul Carnegie Saddleback Football (assistant) John Coppage Esperanza Boys’ soccer Larry Cowden El Modena Softball Hiram deFries Mission Viejo Girls’ soccer Jeff Gardner Estancia Boys’ basketball (soph.) Wayne Heck Newport Harbor Baseball Carl Hummitsch Troy Girls’ soccer Kerry Krause Laguna Hills Girls’ soccer Scott McKinney Cypress Boys’ tennis Scott Mitchell La Quinta Boys’ swimming Kellough Price Bolsa Grande Wrestling Bill Siddall Los Amigos Baseball Stan Sprague Canyon Boys’ swimming Jim Sweiter Los Alamitos Wrestling Bob Thole San Clemente Girls’ soccer John Williams Canyon Girls’ soccer

Coach Profession Carlos Arce Cabinet maker Sid Bradshaw Swimming pool contractor Gary Blate Lawyer John Boston Police officer Walt Bowman College athletic director Paul Carnegie Tire repairman John Coppage Import-export company owner Larry Cowden Certified public accountant Hiram deFries Lawyer Jeff Gardner Professional baseball player Wayne Heck Ice cream store owner Carl Hummitsch Police officer Kerry Krause Dentist Scott McKinney Clergyman Scott Mitchell Lifeguard Kellough Price Maintenance worker at Disneyland Bill Siddall Police officer Stan Sprague Supervisor, O.C. Water District Jim Sweiter Health club manager Bob Thole Truck parts company owner John Williams Firefighter