Landress Seeks Eligibility at Granada Hills

Jim Landress, a starting outfielder as a freshman on the Notre Dame High baseball team last spring, has enrolled at Granada Hills High and is seeking a hardship transfer that would grant him athletic eligibility.

Landress, who batted .308 at Notre Dame and was the quarterback for the junior varsity football team, has filed a petition for athletic eligibility with the City Section athletics office. Classes began Tuesday at Granada Hills, a City school.

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Landress’ father, Steve, is a teacher and baseball coach at Cleveland High.

The elder Landress said recent salary cuts for employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District made Notre Dame’s annual tuition of more than $4,000 unaffordable. Tutoring, books and transportation costs drove the total considerably higher, Steve Landress said.

The Landress family lives in the Cleveland attendance area but is seeking an opportunity transfer that would allow the sophomore to play at Granada Hills. A student whose parent is a teacher at his home school is permitted to enroll elsewhere, the elder Landress said.

Landress (6-foot-1, 170 pounds) also was a starting outfielder for the Van Nuys-Notre Dame baseball team that won the American Legion District 20 title last month.

If eligibility is granted, Landress will battle two other players for the quarterback job. He also punted and played defensive back at Notre Dame. “The kid can throw,” Granada Hills co-Coach Darryl Stroh said.

Steve Landress and Tom Harp, a football co-coach at Granada Hills, were assistants at Cleveland from 1977-79.