Several Northridge Coaches to Receive Multi-Year Packages

In another step toward the NCAA Division I norm, Cal State Northridge is expected to offer several coaches multi-year contracts over the next four weeks.

Before 1986, all Northridge coaches worked under one-year contracts. Since then, three coaches have received multi-year deals--men’s basketball Coach Pete Cassidy, track and field and cross-country Coach Don Strametz and softball Coach Gary Torgeson.

Cassidy completed a two-year deal in 1988. Like Strametz, his current three-year contract expires next month.

Torgeson finished the second year of a two-year deal in June, 1990. He was not awarded another multi-year contract because CSUN’s intercollegiate athletic program was being restructured. Because that process has been completed, Torgeson expects a multi-year deal.

“I’ve been here 26 years and I expect to be here 26 more,” said Torgeson, who has coached the softball team the past 10 years after a 16-year tenure as a football assistant and head coach.

“Coaches throughout the land need contracts, that’s a big problem in athletics. There should be a trade out. Schools should make a commitment.”

That commitment will be made before July 1 to certain coaches after Athletic Director Bob Hiegert and Associate Athletics Director Judy Brame have forwarded their recommendations to Edmund Peckham, vice president of student affairs, for approval.

“In some sports we’ll offer multi-year contracts and in some sports we won’t,” Hiegert said. “As is done at other Division I schools, the major sports will be the ones offered multi-year (contracts), but we also factor in length of time of service and teaching responsibilities. So it is a case-by-case situation, not necessarily sport by sport.”

In his five years at Northridge football Coach Bob Burt has been under single-year contracts, but because his sport is one of the school’s most prominent, that situation is expected to change.

Burt helped his cause by leading the Matadors to a 7-4 record and the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time in school history. Additionally, he was named Region Five coach of the year.

In guiding Northridge to a 44-18-1 record and a berth in the regional finals of the NCAA tournament in its first year in Division I, baseball Coach Bill Kernen also made a case for himself.

Ironically, Kernen is not seeking a longer-term deal.

“I’d be willing to go on a month-to-month (basis),” said Kernen, who does not believe that a multi-year deal would provide security.

“There is no security in coaching,” he said.

Kernen concedes, however, that he would view a multi-year offer as a positive response by the administration to his performance.

“I would take that as a compliment,” Kernen said. “I would see it as a vote of confidence.”

After his team went 29-9 and finished second in the Women’s Intercollegiate volleyball tournament, Coach Walt Ker already has a vote of confidence.

Because the volleyball season ended in December, Ker’s evaluation was completed early and he already has signed a three-year contract, his first multi-year deal in his 16 years at CSUN.

Like Kernen, Ker did not seek a multi-year contract, although he said he signed because he had nothing to lose.

If Ker chooses to leave Northridge he can do so without breaking the contract. If he is fired or laid off during the term of the contract, CSUN is obligated to pay him, however.

“I’ve always followed Walter Alston’s philosophy,” Ker said of the former Dodger manager. “If you do a good job, they’ll rehire you, if you don’t, you shouldn’t be rehired. I’d hate to do a lousy job and keep my job.

“I think tenure . . . breeds lack of motivation.”

Ker said he has not lacked for security in his CSUN career.

“I never felt insecure or pressured by the administration because I feel Bob (Hiegert) and Judy (Brame) are fair,” Ker said. “I feel real good about that relationship.”

First-year women’s basketball Coach Janet Martin, who said she would accept a one-year deal even though she prefers the security a multi-year contract offers, believes multi-year deals help recruiting because she has something to back up her promise to players that she will coach them for four years.

Of the sports that fall into the major category, men’s basketball is the only one that suffered through a sub-par season, including a 1-7 slide the final month after Cassidy required surgery because of an intestinal disorder.

The Matadors finished with an 8-20 record, managed only one road win and averaged just 721 fans--125 less than men’s volleyball, a so-called “minor” sport whose coach, John Price, is classified as part time.

Cassidy expects to be given a three-year contract, however. Several members of Northridge’s volunteer fund-raising organization, the CSUN Athletic Assn., say they are pleased with his performance.

“I think it is more than anyone thought he would get,” Kerry Mayer, executive president of the association, said of the eight wins.

“I think they’d have to give him another three-year shot, out of loyalty to the school.”

In contrast, Mel Wilson is among those association members who believe a three-year deal might not be wise.

“I am disappointed in the program,” said Wilson, a former CSUN All-American defensive back. “First of all, they set their goals kind of low, they tried for just a few wins. I think the coach has to set goals high and pump his kids up to reach them. And, I don’t see a real positive recruitment effort.

“I know Pete was under the weather, but I think a better effort needs to be made to get the players in the local community.

“You gotta say (to your players), ‘These are our goals.’ I’ll give you an arbitrary number, ‘You play 23 games, I expect you to win 14 and if you don’t, heads are going to roll.’ ”

Wilson believes a one-year contract, subject to renewal, would be more prudent.

“You’ve got to give him something to motivate him,” he said of Cassidy. “If baseball can do it, I don’t have any less expectations for basketball.”