Matador Coach Tries to Contact Athletes : Earthquake aftermath: Strametz can’t find three members of track and field squad.

Don Strametz has heard about the yellow tape and he wonders.

The head of the Cal State Northridge track and field program is confident everyone is safe yet he is troubled by a gnawing sense of uncertainty.

Michelle Ishio, Amy Myers and Mike McClintock, members of the school’s men’s and women’s track teams, remained unaccounted for Thursday in the wake of Monday morning’s devastating 6.6 earthquake.

Strametz has “cauliflower ear” from placing dozens of calls to their homes. No answer.

He knows the apartment complexes where they once lived are now draped in yellow, condemned.

“My kids,” Strametz calls them. He wishes they would call, if only to leave a message on his office answering machine.

“This has been very difficult,” he says.

Northridge’s track and field opener is Jan. 29, a quadrangular meet against UC Irvine, Southern Utah and Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz. That event is buried on Strametz’s list of priorities.

Combined, the Northridge men’s and women’s teams comprise approximately 60 athletes. Strametz said Thursday about 20 have no permanent place to live and an additional 25 who live in student dormitories do not know whether their living quarters are safe.

“We have to find these kids a place to stay,” he said.

At a meeting Thursday in the bleachers of the school’s softball field, other Northridge coaches expressed similar sentiments.

Pete Cassidy, Northridge’s basketball coach, and his team were scheduled to play at California Saturday night, but the game was postponed Wednesday.

Thursday morning, John Kasser, Cal’s athletic director, called Northridge officials asking that the game be moved to Monday.

Bob Hiegert, Northridge’s athletic director, conferred with Cassidy, then declined, adding that he hopes the game could be rescheduled later in the season.

“I’d like to get my schedule and my notes and talk to him myself,” Cassidy said, “but they happen to be in the drawer in my office, which I can’t get to right now.”

On Thursday afternoon, a Cal spokesman said the school considers the game canceled.

Northridge’s basketball players won’t meet again until Monday. Cassidy said they “need to get their lives bolted back together.”

All but two of 13 basketball players have been displaced from their homes. A trip might provide short-term relief but greater difficulty in the long run.

“Their problems are still going to be here when they get back, only worse, because some of the places (to live) they might have found will be gone,” Cassidy said.

Jen Fleming, a senior outfielder on the Northridge softball team, has 10 teammates staying at her family’s home in Reseda.

“I don’t think people know how many people from out of the area come here as athletes,” softball Coach Gary Torgeson said. “My biggest problem is not preparing for the season. It’s finding housing for the kids so they can get their lives together.”

John Price, Northridge’s volleyball coach, said several members of his team have found homes to lease but cannot afford the required first and last month’s rent.

“Right now our (scholarship) checks are in the mail,” said basketball player Andre Chevalier. “I’m as broke as the day is long.”

Many athletes whose apartments were damaged would prefer to find single-story houses to rent. “People don’t trust apartments no matter how new or old,” said distance runner Rich Gitahi.

Houses seem to be in short supply, however. “A friend of mine went to a Northridge home this morning and there already were eight other people there,” Gitahi said, “and she left at 7:30.”

Robert Trice, tailback on the Matador football team, is staying with friends while waiting for state officials to inspect his dormitory.

“I think I can move back in,” said Trice, a senior who is finishing work on his degree, “but if they tell us we can’t, there go all my plans.”

Gitahi, a member of the Northridge Athletes Congress, urged the coaches to advise displaced athletes to apply for disaster relief at Federal Emergency Management Agency locations at Granada Hills High, Balboa Park and the Winnetka Recreation Center.

Northridge suspended play by its athletic teams through Sunday, and Hiegert told the coaches that practices before Monday, when the campus is scheduled to reopen will be considered voluntary.

The coaches also were instructed to keep records of any aid to athletes they personally provide, such as paying for meals or arranging shelter, acts that normally would violate NCAA rules.

Citing “a common sense provision,” Hiegert said Northridge will file a report. He does not expect the NCAA to take disciplinary action.

While helping to place their athletes in homes, many coaches also are faced with finding alternative practice facilities.

The men’s volleyball team will practice at Occidental College today and Hoover High on Saturday.

Cassidy has not secured a gym for the basketball team. “We’ll get back into the basketball world when we get more important things settled,” he said.