Football Openers Threatened : City A.D.s Won’t Work Without Pay

If City Section athletic directors carry out their threat of a job boycott it might endanger the start of this fall’s football season, which begins before school commences in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

City athletic directors voted unanimously last week to refuse to work without pay before the start of school Sept. 14. The first City Section football games are scheduled Sept. 9. City officials say they cannot remember a season that started before the school year.

In previous seasons, contests on the first weekend were scrimmages, but the City has allowed teams to elevate this fall’s scrimmages to game status by mutual consent of participating schools.

The athletic directors issued a statement to the City’s senior high school division, demanding pay for 30 hours of work before the start of school. Bell High’s Sue Kamiyama, president of the Los Angeles City Assn. of Athletic Directors, said that the work performed by members of her group is essential to the smooth execution of an athletic event.

“We have to check grade eligibility, check physicals, arrange for insurance, make sure that parent permission forms are signed and filed. We also have to make sure the field is prepared and buses and supervision are assigned,” she said.

Some schools also have B football games and B and C basketball games scheduled before school starts. Under the City’s exponent system, which groups players by age and weight, athletes must be weighed and measured before competing.

“We’ve got a full-scale sports schedule before school starts, which makes this so horrendous,” Kamiyama said.

Dan Issacs, superintendent of the senior high school division, was unavailable for comment Wednesday, and City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness refused to comment.

One contingency plan in the event of a boycott is to shift responsibilities to other administrators. Along with an athletic director, each of the section’s 49 high schools has an administrator in charge of athletics.

That plan might not work, according to Marty Denyer, Canoga Park’s athletic director and the president-elect of the City’s athletic director’s association.

“Many of the administrators don’t know how to do what we do,” he said. “I think the games might have to be suspended.”

In previous years, Southern Section schools faced a similar scheduling conflict without a work boycott. In the Conejo Valley Unified School District, which includes Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Westlake highs, athletic directors double as assistant principals and are contracted for 200 days each school year. They work extra days as the workload dictates, according to Westlake’s Bob Fisher.

“I was finished with my 200 days sometime in May, but it’s not worth the sacrifice to count days. We get paid to get the job done. We don’t worry about days by our own choice. I guess, if you don’t like it, you can go back to the classroom.”

City athletic directors, who earn about $1,000 a semester--in addition to their teacher salaries--and carry a reduced class load, take a different view.

“We’re expected to get teams ready for the season without getting paid,” Chatsworth’s Donna Wyatt said. “They expect a professional job but they aren’t paying for it.”

Denyer said he will honor his colleagues’ stance but harbors reservations.

“Of course I think we should be paid and it’s unfair,” he said. “What the hell? Would you work without pay? But I might have to come in anyway. I hope I don’t have to make that decision. I hope they pay us.”