Players, Fans Feel Betrayed by College Decision

Players on what was once the Ventura College men’s basketball team lolled glumly in the college gym’s balcony bleachers Friday afternoon, contemplating a loss bigger than any single game.

With the school’s championship basketball program in tatters after a prolonged scandal, Ventura College President Larry Calderon had just suspended all games for one year.

The new coach had taken off, half a dozen players had been declared ineligible, and the team had been placed on two years’ probation by the Western State Conference.

For all that, players felt betrayed.

“This year’s team has nothing to do with any of that,” said sophomore Exavien Browder. “It’s a new year, with new people.”

Reaction from elsewhere in the community was almost as pained.

“I’m very disappointed,” Ventura Mayor Jack Tingstrom said. “It always seems that when sanctions are put down, they are put down on the young kids who have nothing to do with it. If you want the sanctions to be meaningful, you need to go after the ones who created this whole thing and punish them. What are they doing?”

The players aren’t the only ones who felt hurt by Friday’s action.

The Pirates’ basketball games were packed by fans who cheered them to state championships in 1995 and 1996, only to see those banners yanked because of the rule violations.

“Those games used to be so crowded,” Tingstrom said. “This is an absolute travesty, and for what?”

Long a basketball powerhouse, the college has come under fire for alleged rule violations by former Coach Virgil Watson, who was accused of providing players with such perks as free rent and discount meals.

At the gym, a few players gazed distractedly at the women’s team practicing on the floor below.

Like some others, Danny Herrera, a freshman from Santa Paula, said he felt that administrators had sold the team down the river.

“Larry Calderon was just playing games,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon, Calderon asked the players whether they would compete despite the team’s probation.

At least half a dozen said they would stay, although the league probation would keep them from going for the state championship.

Browder, a sophomore who came from Marietta, Ga., to play for Ventura College, said he figured the plan would fail without the incentive of another state title.

“About three games into it, everyone would have stopped,” he said.

Even so, he bristled at what he felt was the unfairness of punishment for sins he didn’t commit. “This year’s team has nothing to do with any of that,” he said. “It’s a new year, with new people.”

Brad Wright, a former UCLA and NBA player who lives in Hidden Hills, said he was on hand to help the team through a rough time.

But Wright said he supported the administration’s decision and told the players so.

“I told them to take a full load of classes this year, to really bust their butts,” he said. “Then next year, they’d be able to focus, to play ball without as many academic worries.”

The silver lining eluded many others.

“A lot of people are going to be very angry,” warned Mandy Westbrook, a sophomore on the women’s soccer team.

Hank Alvernaz, a former president of the Ventura College Boosters Club, was one of them.

“I can’t condone an unethical, immoral, distrustful administration at Ventura College,” he said.

He added, however, that the Boosters Club wasn’t “going to support the program this year even if they had continued to play because of the administration’s tactics in dismissing Virgil Watson.”

The Ventura County Community College District board fired Watson in March, accusing him of shoddy teaching techniques as well as various recruiting violations.

Ventura Councilman Gary Tuttle, a college athlete and competitive marathon runner, also expressed regret.

“We’ve been a basketball town since the 1940s and we will still be a basketball town,” he said. “But when one of our family teams gets clobbered like this, I think it’s a blow for all of us.”

Chawkins is a Times staff writer and Hobbs is a correspondent.

* MAIN STORY: A1

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Death of a Basketball Program

March 11, 1997

Former Coach Virgil Watson, who led Ventura to a state championship in 1996, is dismissed.

April 30

The Ventura County Community College District commissions a team of former FBI agents to investigate the Ventura men’s program, alleging violations of state athletic regulations.

July 1

Jim Keating, former coach at Shasta College in Redding, is hired as Ventura coach.

Aug. 11

Keating does not report for his first day of work at Ventura. Administrators at Shasta say he has yet to resign. Rumors circulate that Keating has reconsidered.

Aug. 13

Keating resigns at Ventura, citing his family’s desire to stay in Redding. Keating declines comment regarding a report that he was threatened by a faculty member while visiting Ventura.

Aug. 14

Glen Hefferman, former coach at Columbia College in Sonora, accepts position as Ventura coach.

Aug. 27

The district releases findings of investigation, which alleges violations by boosters, coaches and faculty members, including illegal recruiting and providing free amenities for players.

Sept. 19

Three Ventura players are hurt in a racially motivated attack. The next day, Hefferman voices displeasure with administrators and says he may look for another job.

Oct. 8

Western State Conference officials impose sanctions that include a two-year probation that prohibits Ventura from participating in post-season play and stripping the school of its 1995 and 1996 conference championships. The school also is instructed to form an athletic oversight committee.

Oct. 10

Hefferman moves his family to Chicago and says his future depends on the outcome of the school’s appeal of sanctions.

Oct. 29

Ventura administrators, coaches and players ask a WSC board to delay probation at least one year.

Oct. 30

Hefferman, after being told the school’s appeal will be denied, heads for Chicago. He does not resign.

Oct. 31

Hefferman phones in sick. The WSC upholds sanctions and declares six Ventura players ineligible.

Nov. 2

Hefferman arrives in Chicago and says he is uncertain whether he will return. He says he is considering legal action against school administrators.

Nov. 6

Players discuss whether they are willing to play or sit out the season. Six say they want to play; the rest say they won’t or are undecided.

Nov. 7

Ventura President Larry Calderon suspends the program for one season. The state Commission on Athletics grants approval for players to transfer to Moorpark or Oxnard, schools within the Ventura County Community College District.