After-School Athletics May Be on Fiscal Chopping Block : Teams: Principals of 15 middle schools will consider a proposal to eliminate team play in baseball and softball, and cut track season in half.

Lindbergh Middle School Principal Max Fraley remembers the Long Beach Unified School District’s Saturday sports program in its heyday.

“Long Beach has had more than its share of great athletes, and most of those athletes played in that program,” Fraley said.

Now called the after-school program, it served as a farm system for the district’s five high schools and provided a high level of competition between youngsters throughout the city for more than 30 years.

But the program may fall victim to fiscal belt tightening. Principals at the district’s 15 middle schools are expected on Friday to consider a plan that will drop team play in seventh- and eighth-grade baseball and softball and cut the track season in half beginning in the fall.

Principals also could vote to eliminate the entire program, which many contend serves only a small portion of the district’s 14,689 middle school students.

However, if they vote for the plan being supported by Fraley, the remaining sports--flag football, boys and girls basketball and volleyball, as well as league and city finals in track--would continue for at least another school year.

Supporters such as Fraley and middle school sports director Howard Lyon are optimistic about their chances to save the program, but they realize that some modifications are necessary. Baseball, softball and track were chosen to be eliminated, according to Lyon, because private programs, such as Little League, are available.

Budget cuts have forced three other Southeast area school districts--El Rancho, Montebello and Little Lake--to eliminate competitive sports programs for the same age levels next school year, but the problem in the crowded Long Beach schools is another example of growing pains that began with a shift toward middle schools two years ago.

The changes, which follow a national trend, reassigned ninth-graders to the five high schools. Sixth-graders were then shifted to the 14 former junior high school campuses to create middle schools of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The shift of ninth-graders gutted half of the after-school program.

Previously, the program was composed of competitive sports teams for seventh- and eighth-graders, as well as separate ninth-grade teams.

“It just came to the point that our program had seen the best of times and it is time to adjust,” Fraley said.

Principals want to divert about half of the annual $80,000 after-school budget into a broader-based intramural program that could be run by an outside consultant and would be available to more students. The hope is that a strong intramural program will help combat the district’s staggering dropout rate. About a third of all students in Long Beach never complete high school.

“Our big concern in the middle school is to get a majority of students involved in intramurals,” said Fraley, who was a coach at the former Hoover Junior High for 17 years. “Since the late 1970s, intramurals have died out for a variety of reasons as the schools gave more time to the top athletes in the (after-school) program.”

Some area coaches are supportive of self-contained intramural programs, but remain critical of plans to reduce funding for programs that provide high-level competition for athletes who have the opportunity to excel for high school teams.

Said Lakewood High basketball Coach Tim Sweeney, a recipient of many top players who participated in the program: “You can make the intramural program a focal point. However, there is a need for the individual that wants to have better competition. . . . I hate to see anything like that cut in any way, shape or form.”

Transportation snafus that arose when games were moved from Saturday mornings to Wednesday afternoons appear to have played a major role in persuading middle school principals to search for alternative athletic programs. In some cases students were not dropped off at the correct playing field or were not picked up or returned to school until after dark.

The switch from Saturday mornings to Wednesday afternoons was necessary, according to Lyon, because fewer coaches were willing to work Saturdays for the $600 stipend they received.

Twenty years ago Lyon coached Millikan to a CIF Southern Section basketball title with a starting lineup that had all but one player who participated in the program. He wants intramural and the after-school program to coincide.

“My philosophy is that everybody needs some kind of play time,” he said. “If you do away with the (after-school) program, you are hindering the chance for a potential athlete to accelerate to his greatest potential. But we also need something for the kids that can’t quite make the sports team.”

Before the switch to middle schools, the after-school program was one of the best-known in the area. Professional athletes such as Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres and Morlon Wiley of the Orlando Magic participated in the program. It was not uncommon for large crowds to fill gymnasiums on Saturday mornings to watch games.

“I take the names of the junior high players and when they get here that is a means for them to get into my baseball class,” said Millikan Coach Dan Peters, who competed in the Saturday program at the old Stanford Junior High and later for Lyon’s championship team at Millikan. “So it has been a stepping stone.”

When Fraley began coaching in Long Beach in 1958, the Saturday program was already in place.

“It was a fantastic feeding ground for the high schools and the quality of coaching was outstanding,” he said. “It was a top program and we played all the other schools in our district.”

The city was divided into northern and southern divisions, with the San Diego Freeway roughly used as the dividing line. As enrollment increased in the mid-1960s, the competition was fierce, but camaraderie flourished. That often carried over into the high schools.

“At every game, you got to meet the guys who would be your teammates in high schools,” said former Washington Redskin defensive back Jeff Severson, who attended Jefferson Junior High. “You made a lot of friendships.”

Even today that appears to be true. The entire lineup for the Millikan team that won the CIF Southern Section 5-A Division baseball title two weeks ago competed in the program. Peters played on teams that won City basketball and baseball titles.

Championship games were usually held at high school gymnasiums or the city’s best playing fields. Peters remembers the first time that he and former Angel pitcher Dave Frost walked onto Blair Field to play in the ninth-grade baseball championship game.

“It was big-league stuff,” he said.

Severson said that if the program is completely eliminated it will have an adverse effect on athletes when they get to high school.

“They’re in for a big culture shock, particularly in football, because the caliber of play they will have played against will not be as high as in the past.”

Supporters of the program also say it offers a personal touch. On Saturday, several people paid $5 to participate in a 5-K run at El Dorado Park to support the program.

“It made the town seem smaller,” Severson said.