Stipend Reductions Leave Coaches Considering a Boycott

Loren Shumer, Canyon High School football coach, returned from vacation Sunday at 1:30 a.m. to find a message that simply read: “All coaching stipends will be cut.”

It was the first he had heard of it.

“I came back from Maui and found out I was making less money ($1,200 compared to $2,400 last year),” Shumer said.

Shumer and other coaches in the Orange Unified School District will meet on Sunday to discuss possible reactions to the district’s 50% across-the-board cut in coaching stipends. Among their options will be a boycott of all fall sports, according to Orange Athletic Director Dave Zirkle.

“We’re tired of going through this stuff because of Prop. 13,” Zirkle said. “We’re tired of raising all this money. We want to coach. We aren’t going to work for half pay.”

The district cut stipends 50% for all other extra-curricular activities and eliminated all school and district chairpersons.

Based on telephone calls Wednesday, Orange is apparently the only district of 15 in the county to make such drastic cuts in coaching stipends.

The Orange Unified Education Assn. has already agreed to the stipend cuts as part of a collective bargaining agreement, which also included a 2.59% pay cut for teachers. The union voted to approve the agreement last Wednesday.

“It was not an arbitrary decision to cut coaching stipends,” said Joyce Capelle, the district’s chief fiscal operator.

The stipend cuts will save approximately $150,000, according to Capelle. She said they are part of an overall $5 million cut in the district’s budget.

“That kind of puts it in perspective, doesn’t it?” Capelle said.

Said Zirkle: “They’re talking about pennies here.”

Coaches and athletic directors were angry because they felt they were not informed about Wednesday’s meeting or that the meeting would include a ratification vote.

Like Shumer, many were on vacation when the vote was taken. Other coaches said they missed the meeting because they were misinformed about its importance.

Approximately 400 of the district’s 1,140 teachers attended the meeting, according to Ruby Penner, OUEA president. Zirkle said that only 15 of those in attendance were coaches.

“I found out Thursday that it was a ratification meeting,” Orange volleyball Coach Dan Brady said. “I was upset. I received a flier, but it gave no indication that this was a ratification meeting.”

Said Penner: “We informed them by mail and by the telephone tree that was set up before the summer began. If there was a communication breakdown, I don’t know.”

Zirkle said he received a flier, but returned from vacation on Sunday, too late to cast a vote. He also said that Charlie Fisher, the girls’ athletic director, did not receive a flier.

El Modena football Coach Bill Backstrom said he and his staff received a flier, but only after the Wednesday meeting.

“Most of the coaches still don’t know a thing about this,” said Zirkle, who is an assistant track coach, a position for which he received a stipend of $1,110 last year.

Penner said coaches were the only ones who have complained about the cuts. Other advisers for extra-curricular activities, such as band directors, pep squad, journalism, yearbook and drama, have not voiced disapproval.

“The coaches are a little upset, but there’s a lot involved here,” Penner said. “No one was happy about taking cuts, they just didn’t see any better way. I got my pay cut, I didn’t like it.”

By cutting their stipends, coaches fear that the district is running the risk of becoming less competitive in attracting quality coaches.

“I don’t know what the district is thinking,” Shumer said. “If a guy has an offer from the Orange district and another district, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where he’s going to go.”

Said Zirkle: “Football coaches are already working for about two cents per hour. Now they are asking them to do it for one cent.”

Zirkle and other coaches said the district could lose a significant number of walk-on coaches, which have become important to all high school athletic programs because of fewer teaching positions.

The sophomore basketball coaching job at Orange will pay a stipend of $575 this year under the new agreement.

“I don’t know how they can find some guy who is willing to do that for that type of money,” Shumer said.

Dale Flickinger, who was recently hired as a walk-on to coach the girls’ varsity volleyball team at El Modena, said the stipend cut “was news to me.” Flickinger, who coached Corona del Mar to the 1990 State Division I title, said El Modena officials never mentioned a stipend cut when he was interviewed.

“It’s sad,” he said. “With all the problems going on with kids today, the one thing they shouldn’t be cutting is sports. Athletics give the kids something to do. It keeps them out of trouble.”

Although money wasn’t a major issue with him, he said he wasn’t supportive of cutting stipends.

“I’m getting married in October and I have enough to worry about other than this,” Flickinger said. “It comes down to time. Why should I give up my time for half the money?”

Zirkle said coaches will meet on Sunday to show their unity and come up with a response. He said most of the coaches he has spoken with are in favor of a boycott.

Football practice is scheduled to begin on Monday. The other fall sports--boys’ and girls’ cross-country, girls’ tennis, girls’ volleyball and water polo--begin practice the next week.

“We’re going to get together Sunday and vote on whether or not we’re going to coach,” Orange football Coach Buddy Bland said. “It’s tough on me. I’m new in the district. I have a new baby. I have things I have to think about. It’s going to be tough on coaches now.”

Not all coaches agree that a boycott will work. Many said some coaches will honor the boycott and the district will just find replacements for them.

“Obviously we have to hear all the various aspects,” Brady said. “I think there has to be other alternatives discussed, but (a boycott) is one of the techniques we could use.

“I know one thing, we’re going to find out who really loves coaching because they’ll be doing it for a lot less money.”

And some already know the answer to that question.

“The district knows they have idiots who are going to coach no matter what,” Shumer said. “I’m one of them.”

Times Staff Writer Mike Reilley also contributed to this story.