Year-Round Decision Has Some Fallout : High school sports: One coach says he is quitting because the new schedule asks too much of athletes and coaches.

The Los Angeles Board of Education’s decision last week to keep the district’s winter sports in their traditional seasons in 1991-92 despite year-round school has stirred some debate and prompted at least one coach to quit.

Gary Shair, boys’ basketball coach at Chatsworth High for the past 21 years, said he is not willing to give up his winter vacation to coach. “I said I wouldn’t coach under these circumstances, and that hasn’t changed,” Shair said.

Year-round school begins July 1, but 43 of the district’s 49 high schools are not overcrowded and will not be open year-round. Instead, they will follow a calendar with classes being held from mid-August to mid-December and from mid-February to mid-June.

Winter-season sports, which include boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ soccer and boys’ wrestling, will go on as usual while schools are on vacation. The board allocated $1,237,809 to provide necessary transportation for athletes and to pay coaches to come back on their vacations.

Although most coaches favored keeping winter-season sports intact, many have expressed concern about the reliability of the transportation and whether vacationing students will attend games.

“We had a great following this year with most of our home games sold out,” said Coach Sam Sullivan, whose Fremont boys’ basketball team won the City 3-A Division title. “It was a great boost to our players. I seriously doubt if we’re going to have the same support next year.”

Hal Harkness, district athletic commissioner, said he expects a drop in gate receipts next winter, which will cost the district thousands of dollars.

Boys’ basketball is a showcase sport in the City, with the teams at Crenshaw, Manual Arts, Fremont, Westchester and Fairfax, among others, often playing before sellout crowds. Since many students in the district are bused from other areas, support is expected to dwindle during the winter break.

“I know a lot of parents are upset by the whole thing,” Crenshaw boys’ basketball Coach Willie West said. “It will be hard to plan family vacations now, since our players won’t really get any time off. The eight-week break also will make it difficult to find a job, since it’s for such a short time. And, of course, there won’t be the same excitement on campus.”

When the board voted in favor of year-round school in February of 1990, there was speculation that winter sports would be moved to the fall because most schools would be closed during the heart of those seasons. Coaches, parents and athletes protested such a change, saying it would ruin winter sports and prompt top athletes to flock to schools outside the district.

The board, facing up to $317 million in potential cuts next year, listened to countless complaints on the matter and voted 5-2 last week to provide the extra funds to keep the seasons intact. That has not ended the problems, however.

Shair’s resignation is not expected to be the last. “I’m past the point where I’m doing it for the money,” Shair said. “It goes deeper than that. They are just asking too much from the coaches and athletes. This is just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Even coaches who opposed moving the seasons to the fall are concerned over the ramifications.

“When my (players) are in school, I can watch over them more carefully to make sure they’re staying in line,” Sullivan said. “Now for eight weeks they’ll have a lot of free time, and that isn’t always a good thing.”

Harkness said questions remain on how everything will work, but he said he cannot begin to address any issues until school starts.

“It’s hard for us to work out a transportation schedule until we see which kids are going out for winter sports and where they live,” he said. “We also have to wait and see which coaches decide not to come back so we can work on replacements. We still haven’t decided the exact amount of supplemental pay they’ll receive either.”

The six schools operating on a year-round schedule include Bell, Belmont, Garfield, Huntington Park, Jefferson and South Gate. Harkness said that Fremont, North Hollywood and San Fernando may go year-round in the near future.

But for most of the district’s high schools, the changeover is expected to be a learning process.

“Our coaching staff is well aware of the changes and they supported them,” Marshall Principal Deborah Leidner said. “I don’t expect anyone to resign or complain over what has happened.”

Los Angeles, the second biggest school district in the nation, is the not the first to face such problems. The Jefferson County School District in metropolitan Denver went to a year-round schedule in the early 1980s and still follows a modified year-round schedule. All of the district’s 13 high schools are closed for four weeks during the winter, with winter sports operating during the break.

“The biggest problem we faced early on was a drop in gate receipts that went with the dip in fan support,” said Herb Cochran, a district administrator. “It took some adjusting by the parents, coaches and athletes, but the problems were really not that major. Everyone quickly caught on, and now most favor our calendar schedule.”