Paculba Target of Banning Boosters

The battle lines have been drawn in Wilmington.

On one side is Ed Paculba, who wants to return for his third season as Banning High football coach.

On the other is the Banning Booster Club, which wants Paculba out.

In the middle is Banning Principal Bea Lamothe, who ultimately will decide if Paculba stays or goes.

And in the background is Chris Ferragamo, the former Banning coach who has been earmarked by the boosters to take over the football program, although he isn’t sure he would want the job if it became available.

The intriguing scenario has been a hot topic of conversation among Banning supporters for several weeks, ever since the booster club began circulating a petition calling for Paculba’s removal.

The boosters are unhappy with Banning’s 12-10 record in two seasons under Paculba and insist the team needs a new coach. The Pilots were 5-6 this season, their first losing record since 1974, and lost in the first round of the City Section playoffs for the second year in a row.

Chris Padilla, booster club treasurer and mother of Michael Padilla, a former standout lineman for Banning, said the boosters have more than 400 signatures on their petition, which they plan to bring to a proposed meeting with Lamothe sometime after the holidays.

“A lot of players have come to us and said they’re going to transfer if Paculba returns as coach,” Padilla said. “We’re quite concerned about the program. We feel Mr. Paculba doesn’t have the right chemistry for the job.”

Julian Rodriguez, second vice president and a founding member of the booster club when Gene Vollnogle was football coach in the late 1950s, said the problem lies in Paculba’s coaching ability, not his personality.

“Everybody likes Paculba, he’s a nice guy,” Rodriguez said. “But he’s not a head coach. (A record of) 12-10 in two years doesn’t cut it, because he’s had two good teams.”

Bad blood between Paculba and the boosters has been brewing for some time. Paculba said he stopped attending booster club meetings after learning of the petition.

“I thought it was wrong for them to get a petition going in the middle of the season,” Paculba said. “They didn’t even give me a chance to finish the season. What can I say? I hate to go to meetings where I feel I’m on trial all the time. I said to heck with it.

“They look at the game differently than I do. If they feel they can do a better job than me, they should go out there and do it.”

Paculba said he has no intention of stepping down. He nearly resigned after the season, but reconsidered after talking with Lamothe and several colleagues who encouraged him to stay.

“(The boosters) can do what they want,” Paculba said. “The principal supports me. She’s the one who will make the final decision. Whatever she wants to do, I’ll go along with.”

Lamothe, off work this week because of Christmas vacation, could not be reached for comment.

Several booster club members said Ferragamo has been receptive to the idea of returning as Banning’s coach. After enduring some lean years, Ferragamo guided the Pilots to eight City Section titles in 18 seasons, including an unprecedented six in a row from 1976-81. He coached Banning through the 1986 season, finishing with a 157-36-4 record.

But Ferragamo gave out mixed signals when contacted Wednesday.

“I would love to coach again, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to assume a head coaching job,” he said. “It’s so time-consuming and I’m a little older now.”

Ferragamo, who will turn 53 on Monday, said it would be difficult to return to full-time coaching because he teaches five periods of science a day at Banning and helps his youngest son, Marcus, run a photo store. In addition, Ferragamo is beginning his second season as an assistant coach with an L.A. City firefighters football team, which plays its first game in February.

Although he understands the boosters’ frustration, Ferragamo indicated he doesn’t condone their treatment of Paculba.

“The boosters want a change, I realize, but they have to give Paculba some time to gel,” he said. “You can’t win right away. I didn’t win right away. He’s got to get his staff organized and on the same page. It took me five or six years to do that.”

Paculba wants to be given the same opportunity.

“I want to have (at least) one more year,” Paculba said. “I don’t think I’ve been given a chance to show what I can do.”

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Ken Stumpf, Banning’s defensive coordinator, said the boosters could be partly responsible for the football team’s up-and-down season. The Pilots posted impressive victories over City 3-A Division champion San Pedro, 17-0, and 4-A finalist Dorsey, 33-0, but followed each of those games with poor performances in upset losses to Washington and Crenshaw.

Stumpf said the negative attitude of some Banning supporters may have carried over to the team, because many players’ parents belong to the booster club.

“We’re trying to get the kids to perform to the best of their abilities, yet those kids go home and hear their parents talking negative,” Stumpf said. “So what you get from (the players) may not always be what you want.”

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Peninsula’s Matt Redman, considered one of the top offensive line prospects in Southern California, has given an unwritten commitment to attend Iowa after visiting the university last weekend.

Redman, a 6-foot-7, 290-pound tackle, surprised some by picking the Hawkeyes. It was thought that California had the inside track because several members of Redman’s family, including his parents, attended Cal.

But Redman said he felt more comfortable at Iowa than at Berkeley.

“The facilities at Iowa were so much better than anything I’ve seen, and the people were so nice,” Redman said. “I felt really safe and comfortable there. It’s the kind of environment I wanted to be in.”

Redman also visited Washington State and canceled recruiting trips to Washington and Colorado.

He is the second area high school player to announce his college choice. Justin Stallings, a standout wide receiver and defensive back for Hawthorne, committed to Washington State several weeks ago.

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Serra’s basketball team, off to a disappointing 4-6 start, has been struggling to find a point guard to compliment the team’s two standout transfers--6-6 shooting guard Rick Price and 6-7 forward Leonard Butler.

So far, the Cavaliers haven’t had much luck.

“Five or six players have started at point guard,” assistant James Durk said. “We’re trying to find the right person, but no one has really stepped up and shown a consistent level of play.”

Because of Serra’s weakness at guard, Durk said teams are pressing the Cavaliers with great success. He said Serra is averaging more than 20 turnovers a game. As a result, Price has been called upon to bring the ball up court at times, not an ideal situation for a player who is already being asked to carry the scoring load and rebound.

But Durk feels it is a temporary condition. He said junior Milton Palacio is improving steadily and could be the answer to the team’s problem at the point.

“If you look at Serra’s history, we have a tendency to start off slow,” Durk said. “This team will be as good as last year’s as far as what they accomplish.”

That’s saying a lot. Serra won the State Division IV title last season.

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Redondo, which may have its best basketball team since Gig Sims played for the school in the mid-1970s, has been impressive in finishing second at the Pacific Shores tournament and third at the Beverly Hills tournament.

With another tournament coming up, the third time could be the charm for the Sea Hawks.

Redondo, the host school, appears to be the team to beat in the first Sea Hawk Classic, starting Monday. Rounding out the eight-team field are Leuzinger, Hawthorne, Narbonne, Bellflower, North Torrance, San Pedro and La Puente.

Under second-year Coach Jim Nielsen, Redondo (9-2) has benefited from a balanced attack led by four seniors--guards Cecil Fletcher, Morgan Ensberg and Damani Washington, and 6-6 center Brian Hattingh.

The Sea Hawks’ only losses have been against Inglewood, the area’s No. 1 team, and Newhall Hart, which won the Beverly Hills tournament.

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Westchester’s basketball team staged a remarkable comeback Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the prestigious Las Vegas Holiday Classic.

Trailing Compton Dominguez, 57-42, with less than five minutes to play, the Comets ended the game with a 21-2 run to pull out a stunning 63-59 victory. It came one day after Dominguez had posted a 65-48 victory over Oak Hill Academy of Virginia, the nation’s top-ranked team in USA Today.

Notes

Torrance junior Ted Oh, 17, has been awarded an amateur exemption to the 1994 Los Angeles Open, scheduled for Feb. 6-13 at the Riviera Country Club. Oh, who earned exemptions into the 1993 U.S. Open and Los Angeles Open, has won six American Junior Golf Assn. events and two World Junior Golf events since 1991. . . . South Torrance, which lost to Morningside in the Southern Section and regional basketball finals last season, gained a measure of revenge Tuesday by beating the Monarchs, 83-70, in a nonleague game at South. Junior guard Derek Brown led the Spartans (5-8) with 24 points. Morningside, which returned only two varsity players and no starters from last season, fell to 3-6. . . . Six area wrestlers are ranked among the top six in their weight classes in the Southern Section. They are Mark Tsuruta (103 pounds), Lance Kaneoka (130) and George Torres (135) of West Torrance, Matt Ziskin (145) of Mira Costa, Joey Bolder (171) of El Segundo and Gerald Fazis (189) of Torrance.