Basketball Officially Supports Scyphers

Under scrutiny by one employer, Simi Valley High baseball Coach Mike Scyphers has a vote of confidence from another.

John Dangleis, the supervisor of Big West Conference men’s basketball officials, said Thursday he will ignore reports of alleged misconduct by Scyphers until police and school district authorities “elevate their investigation from the witchhunt phase.”

Scyphers, who built Simi Valley into a perennial Southland baseball power, was suspended from coaching on Tuesday pending an investigation into what police say are possible “financial improprieties” and “improper discipline practices.”

Scyphers said he accepted money from an adult baseball league to reserve the high school’s baseball field on Sundays, a violation of school district policy.

Also, Simi Valley players reportedly have been questioned about a disciplinary system called “the block,” which Scyphers instituted after he became coach of the Pioneers 16 years ago.

When a Simi Valley player breaks a team rule, teammates are allowed to bid for the opportunity to swat that player with a wooden paddle.

The proceeds went to an end-of-the-year party.

State law defines such disciplinary action as corporal punishment, which is prohibited by the state education code.

Police and school officials have declined to divulge specifics about their inquiries, but their probe has not yet tarnished Scyphers’ reputation as one of the West Coast’s premier young basketball referees.

“At this point, nothing has happened to change my mind about him,” Dangleis said.

“I’d make assignments to him right now without any regard for what has been going on in his other job.

“He always has been a very industrious and hard-working official.”

Scyphers, 41, a former Cal State Northridge point guard, has been an NCAA Division I college basketball official for four years, routinely receiving assignments from both the Big West and Pacific 10 conferences--a lucrative side job.

Both conferences pay men’s basketball officials $465 per game, plus travel expenses and a $110 per-diem fee.

Scyphers said he worked 51 games during the past season, but not all at the Division I level.

Among Scyphers’ assignments was the Big West Conference Tournament and a first-round National Invitation Tournament game between Fresno State and Brigham Young.

“He’s rated up there pretty high in our conference, especially among the young guys,” Dangleis said.

Bill McCabe, an independent officials assigner, went a step further.

“He’s probably the best young prospect in the western United States,” McCabe said. “I’m convinced with the path he’s on he’ll do an NCAA Tournament in the next two years or so, and eventually a Final Four sometime soon after that.”

Noted for his knowledge of the rule book, Scyphers has been an instructor at Pac-10 officials’ clinics and worked with McCabe at a basketball officials’ camp at Pepperdine.

“Nobody around I know would ever question Michael’s integrity,” McCabe said.

Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy, who has critiqued Scyphers both as a player and an official, lauded him as a person of “great character and integrity.”

Scyphers was never bothered by coming back to officiate a game involving his alma mater, Cassidy said.

“But sometimes I was,” the coach added. “He’s so conscientious about making sure he’s impartial that he bends over backwards, sometimes I’ve thought to the other extreme.”