IT’S GETTING SERIOUSPrep football races get into...

IT’S GETTING SERIOUS

Prep football races get into full swing this weekend as the Moore, Suburban, Del Rey, Del Rio, Almont, Pioneer and Olympic leagues begin play. The San Gabriel Valley, Camino Real, Express and Arrowhead leagues already have begun.

Some highlights:

Poly, the area’s top-ranked team, is a heavy favorite in the weakened Moore League. The Jackrabbits (4-1) face Jordan (1-4) at 7 p.m. Friday at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. League members posted a combined 9-20 preseason record, but Poly Co-Coach Jerry Jaso said that the Jackrabbits can’t go in thinking the next five weeks will be a cakewalk: “Jordan is a good team. They always play a tough preseason schedule.”

St. Paul (4-1) and St. John Bosco (4-1) have had good preseason performances, but the teams may find themselves battling just to get a playoff spot in the Del Rey League. Bishop Amat of La Puente, top-ranked in the state, is favored, with L.A. Loyola and Alemany of Mission Hills strong challengers. Bosco Coach Jerry Persons is confident. “I think we’re going to do pretty well,” he said.

In the Del Rio, El Rancho (4-1) has charged to the head of the pack in what should be the area’s most balanced race. Defending champion Whittier (2-3) has lost three straight, but has many veteran players returning. Santa Fe (3-2), Pioneer (3-2) and La Serna (2-2-1) can’t be counted out.

Montebello (4-1), Schurr (3-2) and Bell Gardens (3-1-1), upset by El Rancho last week, 9-7, are expected to battle for the Almont League title. Schurr plays host to Bell Gardens on Oct. 22. Montebello plays at Bell Gardens on Oct. 29.

Valley Christian (5-0) opens play Friday in a very balanced Olympic League. The Crusaders visit Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana, but the real test for Valley Christian is expected to come in the final three weeks of the season. The Nov. 12 game against Brethren Christian of Cypress may decide the league title. “Any given day in the Olympic League, anything can happen,” Valley Christian Coach Mike Wunderley said. “I see huge balance.”

In the San Gabriel Valley League, Dominguez (5-0, 2-0) and Paramount (5-0, 1-0) appear to be heading for a showdown Oct. 22. Because it is a seven-team alignment, the league started earlier than most others.

WHITTIER COACH RESIGNS

Mike Fitch, never one to mince words, told the Whittier High football team prior to its 14-13 loss to Northview at Covina on Oct. 7 that he will not be back as coach next season.

The resignation was prompted by a running battle between some booster club members and the coach. Last week they called for Fitch to be fired, saying that some comments he has made during his seven-year tenure were inflammatory. He was reprimanded, for example, by the school in 1990 for criticizing the CIF Southern Section when Whittier did not receive an at-large bid to the playoffs. Fitch charged that the Southern Section was run “by The Three Stooges.”

Critics also claim that Fitch was insensitive to the needs of players and was too hard on them. Fitch denies the charges, saying that certain boosters were “idiots” who were panicking because “they think barbarians are at the gates.”

Fitch, 38, is credited with rebuilding a football program that had been utterly dismal in the 20 years before he was hired in 1987. Fitch, who was the school’s fourth coach of that decade, has led the Cardinals to two Whitmont League titles. Last year Whittier was 12-2 and advanced to the Division VI semifinals. His record is 36-33-1.

NAME CHANGE EXPLAINED

There has long been confusion over how to refer to athletic teams at Cal State Long Beach, interim Athletic Director Dave O’Brien said, and that is why there has been a two-year push to be known as Long Beach State.

According to Volume I of the College Blue Book, the official name is California State University, Long Beach. But for years, Long Beach State has appeared on most team uniforms, department stationery and media guides. Sweat shirts and other memorabilia say LBSU. Most official NCAA publications refer to the 49ers as Long Beach State.

Newspapers and television stations differed, however, on how to refer to 49er sports teams, confusing some spectators and chasing off prospective fans O’Brien claimed.

“In the memory of the sports fan, Long Beach State has always rung a bell. Cal State (University) Long Beach has not,” he said. “So much so, that there is some confusion as to whether we are separate and distinct schools or whether, indeed, we are one.”

Founded in 1949, the school was known as Long Beach State College in its early days. Longtime boosters have not forgotten that, and the name stuck with athletics long after the official name was changed in 1972 to California State University, Long Beach. Getting back to the roots is important, O’Brien said.

PYRAMID FUNDING

Long Beach State expects to begin playing volleyball and basketball in its new athletic facility, the Pyramid, on the lower campus next fall. But some obstacles still remain, including raising another $6 million to finish the structure. The state has funded about $10 million of the project.

“We’re still trying to wrestle with some funding issues, as well as design issues,” O’Brien said.

The university continues to seek someone who will donate $2.5 million in exchange for having his or her name on the building.

O’Brien said the university is leaning toward leasing, rather than buying, seats for the new gymnasium. The final project calls for about 6,600 seats. However, the university can afford only about 5,000 at an estimated cost of $1.7 million to $2.7 million.

Some chairs with backrests are planned, O’Brien said, but to keep the cost down, many bench-type seating areas will be necessary.

CIF IS SEEING RED

In a report to member schools written before he was put on administrative leave, CIF Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas warned that severe financial problems have forced his office into the red and threaten to sharply reduce services.

Thomas said donations and corporate sponsorships have been lacking. Soliciting money from businesses in California’s struggling economy has become increasingly difficult. Heavy rain in June forced postponement of section baseball championships and cut into projected revenues because attendance was poor when the games were eventually rescheduled. And schools cannot afford to pay the section more, while looking for ways to cut their own expenses.

“It’s constantly taking more money to run this office,” Thomas said later in a telephone interview. He reiterated that cost containment is his main goal, but he said he is worried about the future.

Thomas was put on paid leave while the CIF Southern Section Executive Committee investigates allegations that he misused an expense account.

The Southern Section, headquartered in Cerritos, is the largest of 10 autonomous geographic subdivisions that govern high school athletics in California. Its budget of nearly $1.3 million for the 1993-94 school year is down 2% from last year, according to records.

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Administrators of the 500-plus schools in the CIF Southern Section have told Thomas that they would like to reduce travel costs.

The Southern Section reviews and often realigns leagues every two years. Schools of the same size are generally grouped together for competitive balance, but more and more the costs of transporting athletic teams and the proximity of schools have figured into how leagues are realigned. Recently, the Southern Section beat back attempts by Orange County principals to break away and start their own CIF section. Travel costs to games outside the county weighed heavily in the attempt.

Thomas reported that many school districts are also concerned about spiraling costs for transportation to state events. “The thought of canceling or not participating in state playoffs continues to be an issue with superintendents,” Thomas wrote.