Coaches Say NCAA Approval of Proposal 42 Hurts Inner-City Athletes

Last week, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. approved a new rule on scholarships called Proposal 42. In protest to the new rule, which denies scholarships to freshman athletes who meet only part of the standards of Proposition 48, Georgetown basketball Coach John Thompson boycotted the Hoyas’ game against Boston College last Saturday.

Thompson and other college coaches around the country have expressed concern about the new proposal’s fairness to low income families. Said Thompson: “I feel it is a discriminatory thing, especially for a kid who is at a low socioeconomic level.”

The standards of Prop. 48 call for the athlete to have a 2.0 grade-point average in high school and a minimum 700 score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. When it was implemented 3 years ago, many where worried that inner-city athletes would suffer.

In response to the protests, there has been talk of the NCAA’s revoking Proposal 42. Until then, however, many high school coaches in the Los Angeles City area are greatly concerned.

“This is really going to hurt the inner-city athlete,” Dorsey football co-Coach Paul Knox said. “This will strengthen the Prop. 48 rule, and I was not really in favor of that.

“I had thought that they would revise 48 and allow a kid who falls under the guidelines to practice with the team and just have to redshirt his freshman year. The way they have it now, the kid is getting punished by losing a year while gaining the stigma of a Prop. 48 athlete. With this new ruling, more kids will be forced to go the junior college route.”

Crenshaw basketball Coach Willie West, who has turned out many Division I college players and has won 10 city championships in his 18 seasons at Crenshaw, agrees with Knox.

“It is a major blow to the black athlete,” West said. “It is just another effort by the NCAA to make it tougher for them to go to college.

“In many cases, the black athlete is not socially prepared for the (SAT) test,” said West, who had two players from last season’s Cougar team fall victim to Prop. 48 and became ineligible this season. “It is wrong to have the test decide if the athlete can go to school.

“I just hope that the rule does not go into effect because you’ll see more athletes attending junior colleges (if they fail to meet Prop. 42 standards) because they couldn’t afford to go to college.”

This year’s high school football recruiting class will not be affected by Proposal 42, with the first day for signing letters-of-intent Feb. 8, but one of the top players in the state may suffer just from Proposition 48.

Russell White of Encino Crespi, the state’s all-time leading rusher, may postpone his college decision indefinitely because he failed to score better than 700 on his SAT.

White, who has taken the test twice and can take it until June, will re-take the test Jan. 27, but he will not receive the results before Feb. 8.

White has narrowed his list of schools to USC, Washington, Notre Dame and California, but only Cal and Washington have clearly indicated that any athlete in this year’s recruiting class who fails to meet a part of Prop. 48 guidelines would still receive a scholarship.

Schools recruiting White also may lose out to his desire to play as a true freshman. He would have to sit out his freshman year and lose a year of eligibility if he failed to meet the SAT requirement. An option if he fails, would be to attend to junior college and not play football and retain his 4 years of eligibility.

Here is the Los Angeles Coaches Assn.’s first All-City Academic football team:

Offense--Wide receivers: Brian Townsley (University), 3.3 grade-point average; and Eddie Carillo (San Fernando), 3.4; Linemen: Pat Pendleton (South Gate), 3.6; Eric Kim (Venice), 3.5; Mike Williams (Granada Hills), 3.4; Carlton McGee (San Fernando), 3.0; Robert Hardy (San Fernando), 3.2; and David Measer (University), 3.3; Quarterback: Perry Klein (Carson), 3.3; Running backs: Phillip Alexander (Garfield), 3.8, and Orlando Hadnot (Washington), 3.8; Kicker: Dan Elisha (Venice), 3.7.

Defense--Linemen: Ray Harris (Carson), 3.6; Jesus Aispuro (Jefferson), 3.4; Ed Ramirez (Wilson), 3.8; Chris Robbin (Granada Hills), 3.3; Ed Perdano (Fremont), 3.3; Linebackers: John Bradford (Fremont), 3.0; Rick Barfield (San Fernando), 3.7; Kobie Conner (Washington), 3.4; and Ahmed Mortis (Crenshaw), 3.0; Backs: Eric Shambouger (Hamilton), 3.0; Herman Mack (Washington), 3.1; and Greg Hicks (Hamilton), 2.8.

In order to ensure that teams are entered in all five divisions of the state basketball tournament, the Southern Section revamped playoff groupings by placing schools in divisions based on enrollment, which is how the state tournament does it.

But the Southern Section also allowed schools the opportunity to move up in classification for playoff competition, hoping to encourage some of the smaller schools with strong basketball teams to face tougher competition.

These are the schools that chose to move:

Boys: From division 2-A (enrollment 400-749) to division 2-AA (750-999), Aquinas, Bell-Jeff, Cathedral, El Segundo, Laguna Beach, Daniel Murphy. From 2-A to 5-AA (2,400 and up), Pius X, St. Monica, St. Bernard. From 3-A to 4-A (1,500-1,749), St. Paul. From 3-A (1,000-1,499) to 4-AA (1,750-1,999), Crespi, Servite. From 5-A (2,000-2,399) to 5-AA Loyola, Mater Dei, Santa Barbara.

Girls: Bell-Jeff, Louisville and St. Joseph Santa Maria moved from 2-A to 2-AA; El Toro from 5A-5AA and Morningside from 3A-5AA.

Prep Notes

In boys’ basketball, Tracy Murray continues to score in bunches for Glendora High. He scored 55 points in Glendora’s 100-58 victory over Claremont in the Baseline League Friday night. . . . The City’s top rated team, Manual Arts, won 2 games last week, with Kent Bennett scoring 31 points in the Toilers’ 96-71 victory over Venice.

In the Sunkist Invitational track meet Friday at the Sports Arena, the high school events will start at 4:40 p.m. Entered in the high school football 60, are Russell White of Crespi, Larry Billoups of Carson, Beno Bryant of Dorsey, Curtis Conway of Hawthorne, Tommie Smith of Antelope Valley and Andre Green of Long Beach Poly.

TIMES’ BASKETBALL POLLS

Through Jan. 15

BOYS

City

No., School, League Record 1. Manual Arts, Metro-4A 14-0 2. Cleveland, North Valley-4A 13-2 3. Crenshaw, Southern-4A 10-2 4. Westchester, Metro-4A 10-3 5. Taft, North Valley-4A 13-1 6. University, Western-3A 10-4 7. Los Angeles, Western-3A 9-6 8. Fremont, Central-3A 14-3 9. Palisades, Metro-4A 7-6 10. Carson, Pacific-4A 8-6 10. Washington, Southern-4A 8-7

Southern Section

No., School, League Record 1. Saddleback, Sea View-5AA 16-1 2. Mater Dei, Angelus-5AA 18-2 3. Pasadena, Pacific-5A 14-2 4. Loyola, Del Rey-5AA 14-2 5. Irvine, South Coast-5A 17-2 6. Lakewood, Moore-5AA 14-5 7. San Bernardino, San Andreas-4AA 18-0 8. Glendora, Baseline-4AA 16-1 9. St. Bernard, Camino Real-5AA 16-2 10. Millikan, Moore-5AA 15-4 11. Santa Clara, Frontier-2A 13-3 12. St. Paul, Angelus-4A 14-5 13. Rolling Hills, Bay-3A 13-3 14. St. Monica, Camino Real-5A 13-2 15. Capistrano Valley, South Coast-5A 13-4

GIRLS

City

No., School, League Record 1. Crenshaw, Southern-4A 15-0 2. Reseda, Mid Valley-4A 8-3 3. North Hollywood, Mid Valley-4A 10-3 4. Dorsey, Southern-4A 11-3 5. Carson, Pacific-4A 10-3 6. Washington, Southern-4A 11-3 7. Palisades, Metro-4A 9-4 8. El Camino Real, North Valley-4A 8-4 9. Fremont, Central-4A 6-6 10. Gardena, Pacific-4A 6-3

Southern Section

No., School, League Record 1. Morningside, Ocean-5AA 15-1 2. Chino, Baseline-5A 16-0 3. Brea-Olinda, Orange-3A 13-2 4. Buena, Channel-5A 11-2 5. Hart, Foothill-5A 14-2 6. Santa Barbara, Channel-5A 10-5 7. Palos Verdes, Bay-4A 13-3 8. Santa Clara, Frontier-2A 15-1 9. Muir, Pacific-4A 12-3 10. Los Altos, Sierra-4A 16-0 11. Bell Gardens, Whitmont-5AA 13-2 12. Katella, Empire-4A 15-3 13. Ocean View, Sunset-5A 18-2 14. Fountain Valley, Sunset-5AA 12-7 15. Ontario, Hacienda-5A 15-1