Consolidating Schools Will Create a Myriad of Problems

News item: The Palos Verdes Peninsula school board voted Tuesday to close Miraleste and Palos Verdes high schools in June and consolidate operations at a renamed Rolling Hills High next year.

Reaction: What a mess for athletics.

Who will be athletic director?

Who will coach the teams? Will on-campus coaches be given preference over walk-on coaches?

In what league will the new school, with an enrollment of more than 3,000 students, be placed?

Will creating a super school produce super teams, but at the same time reduce the opportunity for students to compete in interscholastic sports?

The list of intriguing questions is endless.

What everyone seems to agree on is that the school board should act as quickly as possible to select a principal.

“Once the administration is chosen, they will have to make some tough decisions,” said John Barr, athletic director at Rolling Hills. “Because there are some real good people at all the schools.”

Barr and his counterparts--Tom Graves at Miraleste and Pete Fawaz at Palos Verdes--all said they plan to apply for the athletic director’s job at the new school. Each one has worked in the district for more than 20 years.

“I think what will happen is we’ll all be relieved of our assignments,” Fawaz said. “After the administrative staffs are put together, they’ll make all of us reapply for positions. That would be the fairest way of doing it.”

Selecting coaches will be equally difficult.

For example, how do you pick between John Mihaljevich of Palos Verdes and Cliff Warren of Rolling Hills, two of the most respected basketball coaches in Southern California?

Fawaz said preference should be given to on-campus coaches. Mihaljevich has taught in the district for more than 25 years. Warren, a successful real estate investor, is a walk-on coach.

“As far as coaching assignments go, when you have a staff member and a walk-on, the staff member should be given preference for any of the positions,” Fawaz said. “We could have coaching staffs of all staff members.”

That’s usually an ideal situation, but what about coaches like Wendell Yoshida of the Palos Verdes girls’ basketball team. A walk-on, Yoshida is nonetheless the best girls’ basketball coach in the South Bay, bar none.

“To lose someone like Wendell Yoshida would be a crime,” said Ken Russell, a coach at Miraleste and Palos Verdes who has worked in the district since 1965. “Whether he’s on the staff or not, I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated or with a better set of values than Wendell Yoshida.

“I don’t know who coaches girls’ basketball in the district. There might be someone on staff. There are a lot of interesting questions.”

One of the most interesting is where to place the new school?

Currently, Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes are members of the five-team Ocean League, and Miraleste is a member of the six-team Camino Real League in most sports. A new two-year releaguing cycle won’t begin until 1992.

Placing the new school in the Ocean League would reduce that league to four teams, not an ideal situation. Other than the small configuration, the league would suddenly find itself with a school twice the size of the other three.

Fawaz suggested that the new peninsula school could be placed in the Bay League, with perhaps two of the smaller Bay League schools (Inglewood and Culver City, for example) moving to the Ocean League. That would leave both leagues with a five-team configuration.

“That would become a CIF matter,” Fawaz said.

Barr looks at the step up in competition as an exciting challenge.

“With a school of 3,100 or 3,200 (students), we would be able to compete with some of the schools that we thought we were outmanned by, the Hawthornes and the Santa Monicas, because we would have the populations to do it,” Barr said. “It’s kind of intriguing. I’m looking forward to being part of it.”

However, others are not welcoming the change.

Mihaljevich, in his 24th season as Palos Verdes’ basketball coach, said he is disappointed with the board’s decision to close two high schools as a way to overcome an expected $2.6 million budget deficit next year.

“In my mind, they closed three high schools,” Mihaljevich said. “What you have is not three down to one, it’s three down to zero. It’s a whole new beginning. I, for one, feel very strongly there should be two high schools on the hill. If ours is the one that had to be closed, then so be it.

“Going to one school creates a lot of problems.”

Mihaljevich said one of his biggest concerns is with students who will be denied the opportunity to compete in interscholastic athletics because there will be fewer spots available. For example, he pointed out that instead of 36 basketball players playing for three varsity teams, there will be one team of 12 players.

“You’re taking 24 of those kids and telling them, ‘You’re career is over with,’ ” Mihaljevich said. “How tough (a decision) is that for someone to make?

“I think the school board underestimated the importance of athletics to all the families on the hill. Parents have invested a lot of time and money in the interest of their youngsters in athletics. What you’re going to have now is many marginal athletes being eliminated from high school competition. That’s very hard for me to accept.”

Mihaljevich said by eliminating the number of athletic opportunities, it could cause some students to transfer to private schools.

Graves, the Miraleste athletic director, said the consolidation of three schools into one may hit his students the hardest.

“I think it affects the kids here more so than anywhere,” he said. “In looking at our basketball program, I’ll bet you there are not more than three kids in our program who would step in and be part of the situation (at the new school).”

In the final analysis, Mihaljevich said it will be tough to part with the past, although many are looking forward to the new school.

“There’s an excitement,” he said. “They’re trying to promote a feeling of a new beginning. Time heals all wounds, but today it’s very sad.”

In a fitting finale, the Palos Verdes football team will play its last game Saturday night in the CIF Division VIII final against host Temecula Valley.

“It’s a great chance for P.V. to go out on top,” said Russell, a Sea King assistant coach. “I don’t think that will be a motivational factor, because our kids are already motivated.”

By Saturday, though, it could become a factor.

After all, wouldn’t you be inspired knowing that you were playing the last football game for your high school?

The 23rd annual South Torrance Holiday Soccer tournament, featuring 32 boys teams, will begin competition Friday with two games.

Top-seeded Palos Verdes, two-time defending CIF 4-A champion, faces Chadwick at 3 p.m., followed at 4:30 by host South facing Morningside.

The remainder of first-round games will be played Saturday morning at South. Other South Bay teams competing are Leuzinger, West Torrance, Bishop Montgomery, San Pedro, Mira Costa, Redondo, Torrance, Hawthorne, North Torrance, Rolling Hills and Miraleste.

The final is scheduled for 1 p.m. Dec. 22 at South.

South Bay’s Football Top 10 Selected by Times Sportswriters

Rank, School, League Record 1 Carson (Pacific) 10-1 2 Banning (Pacific) 8-3 3 Serra (Camino Real) 10-1 4 Hawthorne (Bay) 10-3 5 Morningside (Ocean) 10-3 6 Palos Verdes (Ocean) 8-5 7 Leuzinger (Bay) 8-4 8 Torrance (Pioneer) 8-4 9 West Torrance (Pioneer) 9-3 10 Mira Costa (Ocean) 6-5-1