BUENA PARK : School Athletics Leaves Sidelines

None of the coaches from Buena Park Junior High were upset that their athletes lost their matches to a Fullerton competitor. Just being in the games was a victory.

The school has not offered any sports for the past three years.

“It was their first game, and half my kids have never kicked a soccer ball before,” said coach Paula Dobrowolski as she watched her eighth-grade girls lose a soccer match 5-1. “But they’re very enthusiastic.”

State budget cuts in 1992 forced the entire Buena Park School District to cancel sports activities. Just as they were about to be reinstated last year, the Orange County bankruptcy put the program on hold, said Ron Barry, principal of Buena Park Junior High.

This year, with a $15,000 commitment from the school board and a contribution from the city’s Boys & Girls Club, the school is back on the intramural track. The district also revived numerous other after-school clubs such as the academic decathlon and the American Heritage program, allotting $12,000 for teachers and expenses.

“What we are able to do now is connect the kids with school, after school,” Barry said.

For many parents, the revival of soccer, basketball and other sports among schools in the district means they have an alternative to spending their own money on expensive private sports programs.

Besides being less expensive, parents say, the school games are more convenient for them. Private programs typically do not offer transportation.

Parent Merritt Snyder said he researched private sports lessons and sent his oldest son to karate classes when the school cut its after-school programs. He considered the money well spent, he said, because through sports youngsters “develop teamwork and have a much healthier outlook. They’re not hanging out on street corners.”

When the after-school soccer league returned, he signed up his younger children.

Boys & Girls Club officials got involved, they said, because they were concerned about the number of children who could not afford private programs and therefore were excluded from organized sports.

Jean Morgan, executive director of the club, put together a package of grants and donations that eventually totaled more than $10,000 for the school program.

“It concerned me tremendously as executive director that 900 students had no after-school program,” she said. “We have to get the corporate community, the parents and the schools back to making that commitment” to sports.

The young players greeted the return of the games enthusiastically.

“It felt great,” said 13-year-old Lolani Alvarez after scoring the only goal for the Buena Park eighth-grade girls team.

Teammate Masi Fredericksen, 12, said she is looking forward to traveling to other schools during the season. “Even though we get beat, it’s still fun to play,” she said.