Re-evaluating Coach

After having read several scathing articles in Ventura County newspapers about Santa Clara’s Coach Lou Cvijanovich, it was refreshing to read the March 2 article in The Times’ Ventura County section. The article was highly informative about Coach C’s past history. This article was the epitome of what a coach should be to high school sports, to the past and present players, and to the parents of players and students at Santa Clara High School.

If the people who have so quickly denounced Coach C publicly would take the time to read the article in The Times, we are sure that in the sense of fairness a re-evaluation may take place. The act of removing a team from a tournament that precipitated the indignation by the county’s newspapers was not evaluated in its entirety. If the “slap on the wrist” as depicted by the county sports pages that Santa Clara and Coach C received from the CIF was not sufficient punishment, could it be that some pertinent questions were not asked by our county newspapers?

Were the officials (refereeing the tournament) properly assigned by the area supervisor in charge of this task? What were the officials’ qualifications? Were the officials paid the “going rate” as dictated by the CIF? Did, in fact, any of the county newspapers ask or research any of these questions?

In reference to The Times’ series of articles during the decision-making process of punishment by the CIF, at least one of these important questions was answered. These answers negated the probability of any severe punishment of the Saints team or the coach. Had the severity of punishment differed, the CIF would have been subject to review by others in the interest of justice.

Our two sons have attended Santa Clara High School because of the qualities exemplified by Coach Cvijanovich and the Santa Clara staff.

Thank you very much for your past coverage of Santa Clara High School. Best of luck to Camarillo’s Bubba Burrage and both boys’ and girls’ teams in the state basketball tournaments.

ED AND KAREN KNIGHT

Camarillo