City to Eliminate Competition in the Off-Seasons

A loophole allowing off-season high school competition such as spring football passing competition and winter-league baseball will be closed by the City Section next month, Commissioner Hal Harkness said Friday.

The revision will put the City Section in line with its Southern Section counterparts and will end years of loosely organized, off-season competition in a variety of sports.

The Interscholastic Athletics Committee is expected to implement the proposal barring off-season contact between coaches and players with remaining eligibility at a meeting May 17. The rule would not affect summer-league play.

“It will be approved,” Harkness said. “It’s something we should have addressed years ago.”

Harkness said his office has long heard complaints that varsity coaches have pressured players into specializing in one sport. Often, that pressure has forced players to participate in off-season, weekend games. Some players have been directly or indirectly told that they must play to keep their place on the team, he said.

“We have kids that are being coerced or pressured into participating in off-season games,” Harkness said. “We’d prefer kids not to specialize.”

Insurance liability also is a concern, because off-season events are not sanctioned by the City athletics office and transportation is not provided.

Several City football teams in the area already have begun playing in spring passing leagues, probably for the last time.

“It’s going to change everything,” Kennedy football Coach Bob Francola said. “I approve of the concept of giving kids a chance to do other things, but there are some kids who don’t participate in two sports. Now those kids can’t meet with their coach in the off-season.

“This was helping to close the gap between City and (Southern Section) schools.”

Francola said the revision penalizes schools that have agreed to allow athletes to compete in multiple sports. For instance, Kennedy football players such as Ken Bernas and John Toven also play baseball, thanks to an agreement between Francola and baseball Coach Manny Alvarado.

“Some schools have better cooperation than others,” Francola said. “We worked it out, but we’ll be penalized along with the others. I wish it had stayed the same.”

Participation in non-sanctioned yet school-related games leaves the district open to lawsuits, Harkness said. Francola said that while district insurance covers players throughout the entire school year, a catastrophic injury could leave a player without enough medical coverage. Football players wear no pads in passing-league games.

“We had a real bad collision (in a game) a couple of weeks ago where a kid landed right on his back,” Francola said. “That’s a huge fear of mine.”

San Fernando baseball Coach Steve Marden predicted that several baseball programs with strong youth feeder programs and parental support--such as Chatsworth, El Camino Real and Kennedy--would start club programs.

“Then there will be an even bigger disparity between those schools that have strong community ties and those that don’t,” he predicted.

Currently, club teams may not be coached by “anyone connected with the school,” Harkness said, and teams may not use school equipment. Use of school facilities also is prohibited unless the teams follow user-permit procedures, he said.

Marden said the City should go one step further and ban all sport-specific physical education classes--often run by a head coach--in the off-season.

“You have coaches who tell their kids, ‘If you want a Division I scholarship or if you want to start next season, you must take this class,’ ” Marden said. “That’s a bigger problem.”

Marden said the proliferation of off-season competition has created a vicious cycle: Players and coaches now feel pressured to compete to avoid losing ground to other teams.

“We created the monster,” Marden said. “Now you practically have to (participate) or your kids are at a marked disadvantage.”