Principals Urging Superintendent Not to Cut Athletics

Senior high school principals are recommending to San Diego City Schools Superintendent Tom Payzant that no sports programs be eliminated as the district tries to cut its budget by $37 million.

Athletics’ share of the cutback is $200,000, according to Wayne DeBate, the vice chair of the San Diego Section Coordinating Council. The principals felt high school sports were too valuable to education, he said.

“To combat the money problem, we would raise ticket prices (by one dollar for football and basketball) and ASB cards that would generate in the neighborhood of $50,000 and the school board would reconsider cutting the other $150,000,” DeBate said. “The end result of that meeting was (the recommendation) that no sports would be cut.”

But it’s still just a recommendation.

Serra field hockey Coach Laurie Berger took steps to try to save her sport, encouraging parents and players to write Dr. Shirley Weber, president of San Diego City Schools. DeBate and board members were also targeted for letters.

“I got many letters, not only from field hockey players, but parents,” DeBate said. “(Berger) organized her troops pretty well. I think it’s as good an effort (to save a program) as I’ve seen an individual make. She’s got a high-powered program there she’s trying to save.”

Among the reasons field hockey should be saved, according to Berger: there is no other outlet for youth field hockey; it eliminates any chance of athletes playing field hockey at the collegiate level; the relatively minor cost of the program to the district; field hockey was hit with district cuts once before; field hockey is an Olympic sport; and high local interest, citing six of 23 teams at the National Hockey Festival in Cocoa Beach, Fla. were from San Diego.

Berger also lists 23 players from the district that have received scholarships since 1980, most to Division I universities. Serra’s Barb Hansen and Chris Blackwell have earned athletic scholarships this year. Hansen is going to NCAA runner-up North Carolina, a scholarship worth $10,000 per year, and Blackwell is attending Boston University, worth $15,000.

“The whole field hockey program only costs $15,000,” DeBate said. “If you look at it that way, (Berger’s) got a good point, it has some benefits. We don’t reap any benefits to the district, but it sure does to the kids that we serve.”

Trivia time: Only one school in the San Diego Section has a nickname that is the same as a National Hockey League team. Which school is it?

It’s not a sprint: Will Wester, San Pasqual’s track coach, certainly has style. His April 4 proposal to Helen Kiesel was shared by members of his track team and their parents after the Golden Eagles’ victory over Rancho Bernardo.

This is what happened.

Kiesel, a widow whose sons, Jason and Ryan, are sprinters at San Pasqual, was called to the press box. Once there, her attention was directed to the field, where the athletes spelled out, letter by letter, “Helen will you marry me?” Wester, standing with a bouquet of flowers, a teddy bear and a ring, was the dot under the question mark.

Kiesel grabbed the microphone and announced over the public address system, voice cracking, “Yes.”

Huge cheers from the athletes.

After the obligatory hugs and kisses after Kiesel made her way back to the track, the happy couple took a victory lap.

Almost perfect: When Midway Baptist’s Jon Taylor pitched a no-hitter in a 4-0 1-A Citrus League victory over Lutheran High School Friday, he struck out 19 of a possible 21 batters and he picked off the first batter of the game, one of two walks he allowed. The other out of the game was a grounder to the second baseman--his brother, freshman Mike.

Taylor, a junior, has been on the varsity since his freshman season. He didn’t pitch much last year and is the only returning varsity player on this year’s 7-3 team.

In his start before the no-hitter, he lost to Borrego, 10-4, when he was victimized by six errors in a nine-run inning. The no-hitter improved his record to 4-1 and lowered his earned run average to 2.16.

The strikeout record belongs to Victory Christian’s Terry O’Dell, who struck out 21 against Borrego Springs in 1987. Two others, Helix’s Dennis Morton (1977) and San Pasqual’s Alex Roosevelt (1982), struck out 19.

Said Taylor’s coach, Jerry Webb: “This is one of his best games.”

No kidding.

Scholarship winners: Four East County soccer players received $1,000 scholarships at The Laura and J.J. Herron Foundation banquet on April 6 at Singing Hills Country Club.

The scholarships were established following the death of Laura and J.J. Herron, two soccer players who died in an automobile accident in February 1986. Laura played at Granite Hills and J.J. was an eighth-grader at Montgomery Middle School. He played for the Hot Spurs Soccer Club. The scholarships were established the following year for graduating East County soccer players.

This year’s winners were Valhalla’s Ian Seward, West Hills’ Nathan Vail, Grossmont’s Bridget Lennon and Granite Hills’ Kristin Ayres.

No escape: Poway track and cross country Coach Dan Schaitel isn’t fond of the color red. It reminds him too much of rival Mt. Carmel, the school that annually competes with his program in both those sports for county supremacy. But there’s just no escaping the nasty scarlet and gold, not at home, not at work.

Schaitel’s wife, Janet, is the athletic director’s secretary at Mt. Carmel. At work, Schaitel’s phone messages are taken by social studies resource secretary Anne Dring, who is the mother of Mt. Carmel’s Allison Dring, the defending section champion in the 200 and 400 meters.

“She does a real good job,” Schaitel said. “She brought three messages out to the track to me before the meet Thursday (against Mt. Carmel) and they normally would have been left for the next day. Having a track person around is really helpful. I have a much more interesting lunch period with her around.”

Kristin crew: Schaitel recruited his daughter, Kristin, to be the stat girl for his massive Titan Track Festival. Kristin asked her best friend, Kristin Glover, to help her. And the night before the meet, one of Schaitel’s sophomore runners said she couldn’t compete but she still wanted to help take stats. Her name? Kristin Fink.

Trivia answer: The Flyers of the Winston School in Del Mar, enrollment 35.