NCAA Blocks Cash Grants to Youngsters

Just four hours before 15 young Southern California athletes were to receive $1,000 checks to train for the 1992 Olympic Games, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. warned Thursday that if six of the youngsters--who also aspire to compete in college sports--were given the money, they would be declared ineligible.

The groups making the grants, the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles and Glendale Federal Bank, hastily revised their program and gave checks only to the nine Olympic hopefuls who are training in sports, such as cycling, in which there is no NCAA competition and therefore no eligibility question.

“It distresses me that (our) attempts . . . to assist young aspiring athletes are being thwarted by the NCAA,” said Anita de Frantz, a member of the International Olympic Committee and president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation.

Rick Evrard, the NCAA official who issued the ineligibility notice, said that such grants fall afoul of an NCAA rule that says college athletes lose their eligibility if they receive cash “as an award for participation in competition at any time.”

He added: “Unfortunately, our policy is far more strict than that of the national governing bodies for Olympic sports.”

The checks given out Thursday were part of a $100,000 program, with a total of 25 athletes in California and Florida supposed to get $1,000 a year for the next four years.

Receiving the first $1,000 checks were Angela and Christiane Armendariz, 18, of Glendale; Alexander Chang, 18, of Seal Beach; Amanda Henry, 18, of Thousand Oaks; Brendon Reeves, 17, of Mt. Baldy; John Williams, 17, of Compton; Franca Abbatiello, 12, of San Pedro; John Baldwin, 15, of San Diego, and Arlyn Garcia, 14, of Carson.

Honored, but not getting any money, were Alphonzo Carter, 18, of Los Angeles; Avi Friedlich, 17, of Encino; Patrick Collins, 14, of Tustin; Veronica Hernandez, 14, of Sherman Oaks; Allison Terry, 15, of San Diego, and Nicole Hummel, 14, of San Marino.