Gymnastics Programs Are Taking a Tumble : High schools: Costs and the lack of qualified coaches are taking their tolls in Southland.

After 20 years of coaching the boys’ gymnastics team at El Rancho High in Pico Rivera, Bob Turner knows the fate of the squad is in jeopardy.

It’s not that the student body isn’t enthusiastic. Turner annually makes cuts to keep the team at a manageable level.

Boys’ and girls’ high school gymnastics have fallen on hard times in the past decade because of rising insurance costs and lack of knowledgeable coaches. El Rancho is the only school in the large CIF Southern Section that fields a boys’ team. In recent years, its only meets were against the few remaining teams in the City Section.

Budget cuts and the recent loss of two coaches have forced the City to cancel the sport next year, meaning Turner will have to look to club teams for competition.

“When we eventually drop the sport here--and I know we will--a lot of kids will be deprived,” said Turner, a former gymnast at El Rancho and at USC. “I don’t look forward to sitting down with my kids and telling them about the demise of the sport. It makes me misty eyed just thinking about it.”

El Rancho has a gymnastics tradition. The school started a club team in 1955, and it became a varsity sport the next year. Turner, who took over the program in 1971, is its third coach. El Rancho has won one Southern Section team title under him, and several of its gymnasts have gone on to compete in college. From 1984-89, the Dons went undefeated against other high school teams.

When Turner would schedule a meet against a club team, however, the results were lopsided in favor of the club.

“The future in this sport is definitely with private teams,” Turner said. “They can work year-round, and they don’t have a lot of restrictions on them. Usually by the time that we set up all of the equipment and take it down, we’re only left with about 20 minutes of practice. It’s hard to do much in that amount of time. Gymnastics requires a lot of training in a variety of events.”

The Southern Section has not had a championship in boys’ gymnastics since 1984. The City was down to four teams this past season, and with San Fernando and Los Angeles Wilson dropping their programs, the sport was canceled outright.

“The main problem with gymnastics is coaching,” said Hal Harkness, City athletic commissioner. “There are not enough qualified coaches in the district to keep the sport alive. Most of our educators today do not have the technical knowledge needed to coach gymnastics. The programs we had left were led by older coaches, and now some are retiring, and we have no one to replace them with.

“It’s really a sad situation,” he said. “Most sports that require precise, technical knowledge are suffering for lack of qualified coaches.”

Girls’ high school gymnastics are in little better shape. The Southern Section only had 27 schools competing this past year. Team championships were dropped in 1987 because less than 10% of the section’s schools fielded teams. A meet for individual championships is still held. The City has 10 remaining teams.

Karen Hellyer, a Southern Section administrator in charge of gymnastics, said she has heard four schools may drop their programs next season.

“We don’t have any plans to cancel the sport right now because it is still sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation,” Hellyer said. “Schools can field teams if they’re able, but the competition is definitely dwindling. As much as I hate to see it, the sport is dying.”

Most of the schools with programs have veteran coaches who have fought to keep their teams alive.

Sharon Flynn, who started girls’ gymnastics at Los Alamitos in 1974, recently resigned and said school administrators have no plans to replace her.

“I put in all the extra effort in recent years to keep the sport afloat,” Flynn said. “But there is not anybody at school that wants to take on that responsibility, so sadly, the team will disband.”

Flynn said when she started the team, every school in the league had gymnastics. Last season, Los Alamitos was the only school in the Empire League with a squad. The Griffins had to travel to south Orange County for most of their meets.

Finding quality gymnasts also was a problem for Flynn. Although 20 girls went out for the team last spring, she said only six were varsity caliber. Flynn said the majority of the school’s top gymnasts were on club teams and were not allowed to participate at high school.

“There definitely is interest out there,” she said. “But there are just too many things working against us. It’s an uphill battle at this point, and I got tired fighting it.”

Money is a factor. At a time when many districts in the Southland are facing athletic budget cuts, gymnastics is an easy target. Because there are few programs, travel costs can be high. Equipment costs have soared in recent years because manufacturers have been passing along increased insurance premiums to the consumer. A balance beam costs $2,000 and a floor exercise mat is $16,000 or more. Flynn said Los Alamitos had to get rid of its trampoline several years ago because of the insurance risk.

Many top athletes also are looking to other sports because fewer college scholarships are available. Ten years ago, 63 NCAA Division I schools fielded men’s gymnastics. Last year, there were 38 teams. Women’s gymnastics has dropped from 99 teams to 67 during the same period.

Not all clubs are thriving, either. Don Peters, who operates three clubs in the Southland, said he has 2,000 members and room for more.

Cost may be one factor why numbers are leveling off. Peters estimates that a high-school age athlete who is serious about training will spend $1,500 per year.

Shelley Engel of Huntington Beach, who won the all-around title at the Olympic Festival last week, has been a member of Peters’ SCATS gym for 10 years. A sophomore at Marina High, Engel said although her school does not offer gymnastics, she would have opted for a club team even if it did.

“I don’t think a high school team can give you the necessary training,” she said. “I have a tutor now and spend six days a week at the gym. I don’t think I could have gotten as far in high school.”

Peters acknowledges that a high school team cannot offer enough training for a serious gymnast, but he is discouraged the sport is fading on the prep level.

“There are a lot of very good athletes out there who are not getting a chance to compete in gymnastics because they don’t have access to it,” Peters said. “They’re no longer getting exposure to it at high school, and many people can’t afford to go to a club. Many sections of town don’t even have clubs because the potential owners know the area can’t support it financially.

“I competed on my high school team,” he said, “but unfortunately I don’t see this as a sport for the future in our school system. A lot of people will lose out.”