Cougars on Top, but Gymnastics Faces Extinction : Capistrano Valley Fights to Survive

Given the option to wash cars or watch their team tumble out of existence, hopeful Capistrano Valley gymnasts limbered their fund-raising muscles for a performance that centered on dollar signs rather than double-backs.

Actually, the Cougar gymnastics team did everything but wash cars. They sold candy bars and lollipops, baked goods and gift wrap, and sought donations from local businessmen to raise the $5,000 they needed to field a team.

The effort has paid off handsomely. At the unofficial Southern Section team championship Saturday at Los Angeles Marlborough High, Capistrano Valley capped a 12-0 season with its third consecutive team title--scoring 175.5 points to beat second-place La Crescenta Crescenta Valley (168.3) and third-place Palos Verdes Peninsula (166.8). The Cougars won the 1983 section championship when the section still sponsored the event.

But if the decisions of the Capistrano Valley School District prevailed, the Cougars wouldn’t have a team, much less a championship one.

After putting the finishing touches on a successful 1992 season--Capistrano Valley had just won its second unofficial section team championship--the Cougars soon started to hear rumors that the district wouldn’t fund their sport for the 1993 season.

By the time they were confirmed in the fall, Coach Debbie Cunningham’s plan to save the program was already in motion.

“We had a meeting to lay out the costs and brainstorm about the most effective ways to raise the money,” said Cunningham, the school’s coach since 1978. “I have a very supportive group of parents. They put everything behind (the effort) to make sure (the team) would happen.”

That the Cougars had to pay their own way didn’t sit well with gymnasts who felt their success has been largely ignored.

“Yeah, it got me mad,” said senior captain Leslie Blair, who has competed on the three teams that have gone 34-1 in the last three years. “We’ve won back-to-back titles. There are a lot of other teams that don’t do as well that get the money and the publicity.”

Cunningham doesn’t criticize the school, which she said has been very supportive of their efforts and even helped raise $2,000 for new uneven parallel bars.

And in fairness to the district, Capistrano Valley isn’t the only one to drop gymnastics. The competitive Desert Valleys League, where schools such as Palm Desert and Indio gave the Cougars welcome competition, also dropped its financial support.

The number of section gymnastics teams has dwindled to 14, down from 20 a year ago. In Orange County, where club teams flourish, the numbers are more sobering.

Only three teams exist within county lines. San Clemente and Brea-Olinda, along with Capistrano Valley, form the South Coast League.

Los Alamitos had a successful program but dropped it several years ago. Dana Hills had a team last year, but, with funding cut, opted not to field one in 1993.

Even the section-sanctioned individual championships, the only event that links the section and the sport, is in jeopardy. According to section administrator Karen Hellyer, teams might have to organize their own individual championship and their team meet next year.

“It’s a possibility. They’re well below the 20% policy,” she said.

Any time section membership in a sport dips below 20%, section rules mandate elimination of the team championships.

Organizing their own meets and raising their own funds are only a few of the problems facing high schools programs with a limited competition base. There are other drawbacks.

Meets are often far away and the girls’ parents must provide transportation. Without a bus, the athletes can’t travel as a team.

“The team’s usually in separate cars, so there’s no bonding,” said junior Trisha Daley, who, along with teammates Erin Powell and Blair, has qualified for this week’s individual all-around section championships.

The lack of solidarity even distracts from what a team hopes to accomplish.

“It’s hard to set goals because there are so few teams,” Daley said. “You have to set goals as you go.”

Even more disappointing, the best teams might never find out how good they really are.

Said Powell, the newly crowned South Coast League all-around champion: “It’s gotten less and less competitive for us. Most teams have one or two strong girls and that’s it.”

The argument that so little competition lessens the importance of an undefeated season or a section title is one Cunningham hears often.

“It’s frustrating because I have probably the strongest team in 17 years of coaching,” said Cunningham, who believes this team could have won a championship when gymnastics was at its prime in the section.

Cunningham is pessimistic about the future of gymnastics at Capistrano Valley in particular and high school gymnastics in general. Fortunately, her doubts have yet to be confirmed.

“I’ve been telling my husband the past eight years that this is our last year, and every year we still manage to have a team,” she said. “I’ve watched the section go from 40 teams or more to the 14 there are this year.”

Team members, most of whom are former club gymnasts but enjoy the more relaxed high school competition, aren’t sure why their sport is close to extinction at the high school level.

“I still don’t know why,” Blair said. “Probably because it’s not that popular and it’s expensive.”

Not necessarily so, according to Cunningham, who believes gymnasts are being lost to cheerleading.

“It’s not all financial,” she said. “Cheerleading has had a major impact on why programs are getting smaller.”

Whatever the reasons, the gymnasts are saddened that their legacy might not be continued.

“I think a lot more teams will disappear,” said Daley, who competed for Spectrum Gymnastics in Irvine for three years. “I feel bad for the younger girls coming up. High school gymnastics is so fun.”