City May Begin Killing B Team System by Fall

The City Section on Monday moved a step closer toward eliminating the controversial exponent system in football and could institute by next season a pilot frosh-soph program that will help put its teams in step with their high school counterparts throughout the nation.

In a meeting attended by about 25 City football coaches, the Interscholastic Athletics Committee announced that it will meet with district Supt. Sid Thompson to determine if the exponent system--commonly called the B team program--can be eliminated without the approval of the school board.

Past attempts to eliminate the exponent system, which groups athletes in non-varsity sports by age and size, have been blocked by the Los Angeles school board. The B program, which gives smaller students a place to play, has long been a hot political football.

City Commissioner Hal Harkness said his department will attempt to phase out the program. Preliminary steps are under way to form a pilot program in which at least two of the City’s eight-team conferences will field frosh-soph teams in the fall instead of B teams.

“If we implement this gradually, it will allow the process to slowly erode itself,” Harkness said.

Change has been hard to come by. City coaches made a full-scale attempt to eliminate B teams as recently as 1985 when the board--facing pressure from a variety of ethnic groups--again vetoed the proposal. The City is believed to be the only school district in the United States that still uses the exponent system, which most coaches and administrators long ago deemed “archaic.”

“That’s what happens when you have seven people who are politicians making those decisions,” Harkness said, referring to the board. “The rest of the state went away from this 20 years ago.”

Coaches and administrators overwhelmingly have voiced support for the program’s elimination. A survey conducted by Carson High administrators showed that 402 of 461 respondents favored of the program’s elimination. Principals, athletic directors, administrators and coaches at each of the district’s 49 high schools were polled.

Many school districts field football teams at the freshman, sophomore and varsity levels. The City eliminated its junior varsity programs several years ago, but if the B system is scrapped, that program might be reinstated.

In other action, IAC closed a City loophole allowing out-of-season competition, again bringing the City in line with its Southern Section brethren. The change will relieve the City of liability in school-related, yet unsanctioned, athletic events. The move also was designed to relieve pressure on players, who sometimes have been coerced into specializing in one sport by overzealous coaches.

“It will eliminate all the extracurricular, non-sanctioned, I-don’t-see-it activities,” said Sue Kamiyama, Bell’s athletic director and chairwoman of the City rules committee. “It’ll give youngsters the chance to be youngsters, and adults the chance to be adults.”

The off-season competition ban starts after the first day of the fall semester, except when the sport is in season. Winter-league baseball, spring and basketball and football were casualties.

An official summer dead period, which prohibits interaction between paid or volunteer coaches and players with remaining eligibility, will be in place from Aug. 1 until the first day of practice in all fall sports.

So-called “club teams” will not be affected, Harkness said. Club teams must not be affiliated with schools, and high school coaches may not be in attendance at games, he said. Club teams also may not use school facilities without a youth services permit.

Penalties could include the loss of student eligibility, loss of playoff participation, sanctions on coaches or programs, or program probation or suspension.

In other committee action:

* Reseda’s bid to be removed from the Northwest Valley Conference in all sports was defeated. Reseda was moved from the Valley Pac-8 to the stronger Northwest Valley three seasons ago with the promise that the arrangement would be addressed after two seasons. Struggling Canoga Park was moved from the Northwest Valley to Valley Pac-8.