Play Examines Winning Ways

From point-shaving to probation, steroids to secret cash payments, the scandals of collegiate sports in recent years have nearly surpassed the successes.

“Something is wrong inherently with the system,” said playwright Craig Alpaugh, whose new production, “The Only Thing,” opens Thursday at the Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

The play examines the pressures of college basketball at a fictional big-time Midwestern university. The premise isn’t difficult to digest: The school’s coach, a perennial loser, recruits a talented high school superstar who suddenly turns the program around. Everybody is ecstatic, from the coach who is treated like a messiah, to the fans who have endured a tradition of defeat, to the player, F. C. Smith, who seems destined for the NBA.

Then, after Smith suffers a career-ending injury, it’s discovered that the coach and school committed numerous recruiting violations to enroll him. The coach, Smooth Smathers, soon finds himself forced into a morality check: Does he report everything he knows, thereby risking his new status as local hero, or become even more entangled in lies, hoping to save his job?

“It shows how blind ambition can lead to total ruin,” said Alpaugh, 46.

For Alpaugh, the play, whose title comes from the famous Vince Lombardi quote--”Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”--is a natural marriage of his basketball fanaticism and love for writing.

“It really is inevitable that my twin passions would merge,” he said.

Alpaugh finished the rough draft of the play three years ago, and, helped by director Larry Kelley, has tinkered with it ever since.

“To me, the play is about what you lose when you compromise your standards,” said Kelley, 50. “There is always a spiritual price.”

Both Alpaugh and Kelley, while disillusioned with the once-innocent world of collegiate athletics, aren’t ready to abandon their favorite sports.

“I love it too much to leave it,” Alpaugh said, “but you start to shake your head and wonder when is it going to end.”

For Haven Mitchell, 30, who plays Smith, it ended after one year of playing basketball at El Camino College.

“This character is home base for me,” said Mitchell. “I know how the coaches and administration exploit young athletes. My older brother played in high school, and all during high school, I was teaching him how to read.”

Alpaugh, who is a clerical worker at a therapists’ registry in Westchester, also wrote “Neighborhood Crime Watch,” which was performed at the Group Repertory in 1989.

This is Kelley’s first directing assignment since the play “Sundance” in 1983 at the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre. Since then, he’s been active in workshops and acting roles.

“The Only Thing” opens Thursday at the Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets $15. Call (818) 769-PLAY.