Prep Review : Coaches Experiencing Conflict Between Picket Line, Ball Field

Bill Backstrom is a history teacher at El Modena High School, and, like many other teachers in the Orange Unified School District, he has been walking a picket line for the past week and a half as part of a strike over pay raises.

Backstrom is also the football coach at El Modena, and like many other coaches, has realized the conflict between supporting the strike and supporting his team.

Although football season is a summer vacation away, this is usually a busy time for Backstrom. He is usually putting his team through light workouts, and preparing a theme for the upcoming football season. He is usually making up T-shirts and shorts with the whatever saying will symbolize the season.

That’s all been put on hold.

The strike has put district coaches in a difficult position. They may believe in what the strike is trying to accomplish, but they also have invested enormous time and effort with their players.

But coaches who are feeling the most stress are those, unlike Backstrom, whose teams are currently playing.

Softball coaches Jim Prelesnik of Orange and Dave Shelton of Villa Park, for example, walked the picket line, then, at 2 p.m., crossed it to conduct practice.

Their teams were both in the midst of playoff drives when the strike started, May 12.

“At a time like that, you want your players to have as few distractions as possible,” Shelton said. “But their days had turned chaotic. They have substitute teachers, I’m outside picketing. When I got them in practice I’d try to get things back to normal but it’s impossible to ignore what is going on.”

Villa Park lost, 13-7, to Walnut in the first round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs.

Orange lost, 7-1, to San Clemente in the first round.

Prelesnik said he felt no pressure from teachers to also boycott his coaching duties.

“Everyone realizes how hard the girls have worked,” he said. “Coaching has been like a breath of fresh air for me. Once I’m on the practice field, it’s a relief for me and for the kids.”

Football coach Backstrom hasn’t crossed over to help with his players weightlifting and conditioning. That’s being taken care of by walk-on coaches, whom Backstrom calls daily for progress reports and to relay instructions.

“My position is if this thing isn’t settled, I’m not going to cross,” he said.

But, asked if the strike had occurred in November, and his team was in the hunt for a playoff berth, Backstrom said he would definitely reconsider.

“We’re (teacher/coaches) really in the most vulnerable situation,” he said. “All of us who do extracurricular things. They know the amount of time and care that goes into building a team’s season. Are you going to give all that up right when it counts?”

The strike resulted in the resignation of Orange football Coach Mark McMahon last week. McMahon said he had become frustrated with the atmosphere between faculty members and administrators created by the strike.

Backstrom doesn’t believe those conflicts will end, especially for coaches, when the strike does.

“A coach is dealing in so many facets of the school,” he said. “He works close with the counselors to make sure his players are doing OK. Well, there are some counselors here who have kept working. That may cause problems.

“You have to go to the administration for money, and these are the same people who come out everyday and take down my name for being on the line, the same people who won’t let me talk to my kids when I’m picketing. I think the repercussions are going to be severe. The effects of the strike are going to be felt for years to come.”

Track and Field Roundup:

-La Habra’s Sita Jones ran the fastest 1,600-meter time this season for Orange County girls Saturday at the Southern Section track and field championships.

Jones, a senior, finished third in the 3-A division in 5 minutes, 6.67 seconds. Mountain View’s Tracey Williams won the race in 4:50.75, the fastest time of the four divisions.

Jones, who had clocked the county’s fastest 3,200 meter time this season (11:03) at the Arcadia Invitational April 9, failed to qualify in the 3,200 last Saturday at the Southern Section preliminaries.

Jones, however, is one of many county athletes qualified for the Southern Section Masters meet Friday night at Cerritos College. She has run the sixth fastest time of the nine entrants in the Masters 1,600.

- Leslie Cashion of Corona del Mar failed to qualify for the 1,600. She finished sixth in 5:11.27.

“I don’t know how, but somehow I lost count of the laps,” Cashion, a senior, said. “All of a sudden the race was over and I was thinking there was another lap to go.

Cashion made up for her mistake an hour later in the 3,200. Though she started out in the back of the pack, Cashion gradually worked her way to third, where she finished in 11:10.74, good enough to qualify for the Masters.

-Four county pole vaulters qualified for the Masters meet Saturday: Marina’s Kevin Magula, Newport Harbor’s R.W. Henson, Edison’s David Noel and Valencia’s Eric Whitcomb. All vaulted 14-feet, 6-inches.

San Marcos’ Tom Richards, son of former U.S. Olympian Bob Richards, broke his own 4-A record of 15-4 3/4 in winning the event at 16-6.

-The boys’ 4-A 3,200 looked to be something of an intra-county championship, as four of the five lead runners were from Orange County. Marina’s Shanon Winkelman, Santa Ana Valley’s Jimmy Rodriguez and Dana Hills’ Javier Barrera and Steve Niednagel formed the lead pack with Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks.

The five-pack remained tight until 2,400 meters, where Winkelman and Rodriguez took off in a race for first. Rodriguez hung tight, but Winkelman surged in the final 100 to win in 9:11.73.

The fast pace did the county contingency well, though, as Rodriguez (9:12.43), Barrera (third, 9:17.23) and Niednagel (fourth, 9:23.37) had times fast enough to qualify for the Masters meet.

Thousand Oaks’ Williamson, fifth in 9:25.85, missed qualifying by less than a second.

The only other county 3,200-meter qualifier was Eddie Lavelle of Corona del Mar, third in the 3-A race at 9:19.15.

Corona del Mar’s girls won the 3-A team title with 56 points. Pomona was second with 38, Esperanza was third with 36. Woodbridge won the 2-A. Canyon tied with Muir for third in the 4-A.

-The Masters meet will provide opportunity for many long-awaited county showdowns. Corona del Mar’s d’Layne Kerr and Mission Viejo’s Sheri Bertell will meet in the 200.

Kerr won the 3-A 200 Saturday in 24.71 Bertell was fifth in the 4-A in 24.55.

Kerr’s specialty is the 400 meters, another event she won Saturday. Bertell excels in the 100, where she placed fifth Saturday.

Auggie Garrido, former Cal State Fullerton baseball coach, now at the University of Illinois, will be taking a group of 10 high school baseball players--eight from Orange County--to Spain for a baseball trip this summer.

The Orange County players making the trip are Mark Bablot (Foothill), Vic Boyd (Mater Dei), Jeff Ciccarella (Mater Dei), Robbie Ickes (Mater Dei), Jeremy Miller (Foothill), Bryan Palluck (Foothill), Randy Roskelly (Valencia) and Mike Sullivan (Servite).

The group will attend clinics and play tournaments through five cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, the site of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Baseball will be initiated as an Olympic medal event in 1992.

Prep Notes

Bob Rau, new football coach at Canyon High, has added Andy Donegan, former Marina athletic director and assistant coach, to his staff. Donegan will serve as Canyon’s defensive coordinator. Rau has also added former Los Angeles Rams offensive guard Greg Horton to the staff. Horton will be the team’s line coach . . . Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who has the best winning percentage among active Division I basketball coaches, will be the guest speaker at an awards dinner honoring Santa Ana’s three-time Century League championship team at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 31, at the Revere House in Tustin. The dinner is open to the public with tickets priced at $11. For more information, call Greg Coombs at 558-5780.