One-Division Playoff Plan Draws Fire : Football: Many City Section 3-A coaches fear that a solitary 16-team bracket will spell the end of weaker programs.

A plan to eliminate playoff divisions for City Section football teams has riled coaches in the 3-A Division, who claim that their teams would be disenfranchised from postseason play.

More than two dozen of the City’s 33 coaches in the 3-A Division gathered at Hamilton High on Wednesday night to discuss alternatives to the plan that will be put before the section’s Interscholastic Athletics Committee on Monday. If the proposal is adopted, the City’s 49 football teams will compete next fall in a single-division, 16-team playoff.

The plan is backed by City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness and Dorsey football co-Coach Paul Knox, president of the Los Angeles Coaches Assn. and an IAC member. They argue that the current playoff system divides the 49 schools unevenly. The 16-team 4-A Division is too small to conduct what Harkness calls a meaningful playoff.

“None of us deny that something needs to be done, but we don’t think eliminating divisions is the best answer,” said Monroe football Coach Dave Lertzman, who will represent the 3-A group Monday. “We have a number of concerns about this plan and we want IAC to take more time to consider them.”

Coaches discussed two alternatives at Wednesday’s meeting but reached no consensus.

Under one proposal, a seeding committee would be chosen to rank the City’s top 32 teams after the regular season. The first 16 teams would play for the 4-A title and the second group would form the 3-A bracket.

In the second plan, the 12 league champions would make up the 4-A bracket; the 12 runners-up would be in the 3-A group.

Many 3-A coaches fear that eliminating a second bracket could kill off some programs that stand little chance of earning a berth in a one-division playoff. Particularly hard-hit would be Southern League members Gardena, Narbonne, San Pedro and Washington, which play at the 3-A level in the Southern Pacific Conference with Pacific League members Banning, Carson, Crenshaw and Dorsey. The City 4-A champion for 14 of the past 15 years has been either Banning, Carson or Dorsey.

“Those teams might never go to the playoffs again,” Lertzman said of the Southern League. “When you talk to kids about their season, they measure success by whether they made the playoffs. Having no chance to make the playoffs would be a blow to the self-esteem of a lot of kids. Why would kids come out for a program like that?”

But not all 3-A coaches support that argument. In Coach Fred Grimes’ four seasons at North Hollywood, the Huskies have reached the playoffs just once. Still, he favors the elimination of divisions.

“All I want to do is win a league title and play local teams,” he said. “You can take whoever you want in the playoffs so long as they have a good record. If you’re 5-4, you don’t belong in the playoffs.”

The comparatively small size of the 4-A Division means that teams with mediocre or poor records frequently are included in the playoffs. Teams often wind up playing league and conference members a second time, and the championship invariably is a replay of a regular-season game.

“It’s no fun winding up playing the same teams all the time,” Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh said. “That’s why our playoffs stink.”

Stroh sees an easy way to eliminate the fuss--scrap City titles.

“Let’s put the City in with the CIF (Southern Section) playoffs,” he said. “There’s nothing sacred about a City title. Then, the City could go to a lot more divisions.

“If Hart played Granada or Canyon, or Long Beach Poly played Carson, that would be exciting. We could have a Southern California champion and it would bring out the fans.”