Simi Valley Offers No Apologies : Controversy Mars Trip to Florida

The Simi Valley High baseball team and Coach Mike Scyphers left the Colonial Baseball Classic in Orlando, Fla. with no regrets. And the Pioneers will not return to the prestigious tournament, also with no regrets.

Scyphers, who met Monday with Simi Valley Principal Dave Ellis to discuss the somewhat fiery week, returned feeling abused by tournament officials, coaches and the Valley-area press.

Likewise, tournament hosts were appalled by the behavior of the Simi Valley contingent.

Simi Valley won four games and lost one in the 16-team tournament but found itself embroiled in several controversies on and off the playing field.

Winter Park Coach Bob King and the Wildcats refused to shake hands with the Pioneers after Simi Valley’s 12-4 victory. Against Colonial, Scyphers was ejected after arguing a called strike.

Scyphers decided to forego playing the consolation championship game against Lake Brantley because the Pioneers already had played as many nonleague games in the tournament as the Southern Section would allow.

The decision angered tournament director and Colonial Coach George Kirchgassner, who accused Scyphers of entering the tournament knowing he would be unable to play more than five games.

Scyphers said he called Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas early in the tournament week and discovered that the Pioneers would be forced to shave a future nonleague game from their schedule were they to play six tournament games. Hershell Freeman, the tournament’s assistant director, said Scyphers told him he knew his team would have to play six games if it lost its first-round game, which the Pioneers did.

Scyphers maintains that he did not realize his team would play more than four games until the Pioneers dropped into the consolation bracket. “I never said that,” he said of Freeman’s remarks. “That guy is a liar. That is an out-and-out lie quote.”

Saugus would have found itself in the same position but escaped the dilemma when it lost in its fourth tournament game. “If we had won, we would not have been able to play the third-place game,” Saugus Coach Doug Worley said.

Worley declined to comment on Simi Valley’s alleged rude behavior. Scyphers’ explanation, however, was good enough for Ellis, who read news reports of the tournament and was admittedly concerned.

“Of course I didn’t like to see anything before the public that reflected badly on our school,” Ellis said. “I was curious as to what was going on.

“I’ve talked with Mike and he has been very forthright and was concerned with how some of the things were reported. It would appear there was a concerted effort to shed a bad light on our school.”

Upon returning, Scyphers said that somewhere in the feuds, forfeits and finger-pointing, his side of the story was forgotten.

“I’m upset that our hometown writers didn’t take care of us,” Scyphers said. “It’s as simple as that. They back-stabbed us.”

Scyphers claimed that many of the reports from the tournament were slanted. “They missed the whole gist of the thing,” he said. “They missed the whole picture.”

The whole picture, however, was somewhat clouded.

Kirchgassner said the tournament lost an estimated $1,500 in gate receipts because no consolation championship game was played.

Scyphers scoffed, saying the gate receipts would not have come close to Kirchgassner’s figure.

Simi Valley, which won the tournament in 1986 as the first and only non-Florida entry, made few friends in this year’s tournament with its boisterous and sometimes belligerent dugout behavior.

That, however, was the least of Scyphers’ worries.

“I am not concerned one bit about the enthusiasm and noise out of our dugout,” he said. “Not one bit.”

Ellis rallied behind his coach.

“I’m sure our kids are seen as rude in their behavior when they are intense,” he said. “I can tell you that the kids on our team would never intend to be rude or abusive to the other team, and that’s not to say we’re perfect.”

King, and others, were offended by the dugout antics of the Pioneers. “I think they’re the rudest bunch I’ve ever seen,” King said after the loss to Simi Valley. “The kids on that team behave in a way we’ve never seen around here.”

And they won’t see the Pioneers again.

“I just think it’s time for us to go somewhere else,” said Scyphers, whose team posted a three-year record of 12-2 in the tournament. “Maybe we’ve worn out our welcome, I don’t know. But we didn’t do anything different than we had the last two years. They’re tired of us beating the Florida schools, I have a feeling.”

Staff writer Vince Kowalick contributed to this story.