Position Offered to Burt

It’s officially decision time for Cal State Northridge football Coach Bob Burt, who was offered a coaching position at Temescal Canyon High by the Lake Elsinore school board Tuesday night.

Burt, dressed in a sport coat and tie, thanked the board for its offer and said he’d try to get back to them with an answer by the end of the week.

Burt, 53, plans to meet with Northridge athletic officials this week to discuss his concerns about the program’s funding and direction. The answers he receives will dictate whether he stays for a 10th season and beyond, he said.

“It’s vague, ambiguous and unintelligible,” Burt said, referring to specifics concerning the program’s funding future.

David Long, superintendent of the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, said Burt was the only applicant from a list of 40 who is a head coach at a four-year college.

Burt applied for the Temescal Canyon position when the football program at Northridge was in limbo. However, Northridge students this month passed a fee referendum that staved off the elimination of football and several other programs. Each student will pay $27 per semester, which will raise more than $1 million annually for athletics.

Burt said he wants to see how the referendum kitty is to be divided. He long has been critical of the school’s funding for Matador football, which competes at the NCAA Division I-AA level. Northridge competes in the American West Conference, a cost-containment alignment with a 20-scholarship maximum for football.

Temescal Canyon, which opened four years ago and competes in the Sunkist League, finished 6-5 and lost in the first round of the Southern Section Division VIII playoffs.