Raising Red Flags on Dirty Laundry

Some points about Cal State Northridge, which I considered putting in an anonymous column. . . .

That fine, little mess about whether Northridge officially ordered football uniforms raises more red flags about the program’s future.

Ben Bass, president of Bassco Sporting Goods in Van Nuys, said this week the school most surely gave the go-ahead in March, to the tune of $15,000 for 110 uniforms.

He said Northridge agreed to foot the bill after July 1, the start of the school’s fiscal year.

Grace Collins, associate athletic director, said an order for the uniforms was discussed but not placed. There’s no money in the budget for new uniforms, Collins said.

Is that the real reason or could it be Northridge is planning to drop football after the 1999 season and doesn’t need new outfits?

Northridge administrators reportedly have discussed cutting the program, mostly to satisfy gender-equity requirements by the end of the year.

“They can’t figure out a way to solve the problem without dropping football,” a source said.

If that’s the case, Bass will have to play hardball to get his money, probably by suing the university.

Who to believe?

Look at it this way. Bass has been running his business for 14 years and has dealt with Northridge before, so he’s probably not about to jump the gun on a flimsy order, particularly a large one.

Something smells and it’s not the old uniforms.

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For those who don’t believe Northridge is committed to keeping football, here’s a theory:

The school, under intense pressure to achieve gender equity and to build a football stadium or be kicked out of the Big Sky Conference, scrambles for a solution.

It doesn’t come easy.

Finding cash to create enough women’s teams to balance the gender-equity scales and to put up a football stadium is virtually impossible for such a shoe-string operation.

Moreover, the stadium is a brain aneurysm of a headache, with university neighbors complaining and threatening legal action if it’s built.

Then comes an anonymous letter to the athletic department, alleging many NCAA violations by the football program. The thinking-cap bulb lights up.

School investigators pull out the shovels and the digging leads to the “resignation” of Rob Phenicie, the team’s bright offensive coordinator, and tosses Coach Ron Ponciano into quicksand.

Through Thursday, Ponciano’s status at Northridge remains uncertain and the investigation continues.

If the school nails Ponciano, forcing him to quit or be fired, it leaves the football program in disarray. By now, the thinking-cap light can illuminate the dark side of the moon.

The school can chop-block football into oblivion, citing the instability of the program as justification, and make all the problems disappear.

Far-fetched? Time will tell.

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Crew members of the SS Northridge keep jumping ship.

Michael Rehm started working at San Jose State on Monday after 20 months as the Northridge assistant athletic director for development.

His reason for leaving?

“Nobody [at Northridge] knows what their vision [for athletics] is,” Rehm said. “[At San Jose State] they have a clear focus of what they want to be when they grow up.

“They have great facilities, great leadership, the community is very sports-minded and it’s one of my favorite parts of the country.”

Rehm said raising money for Northridge was a tough sale.

“If I’m a $1 million donor, I’m not giving anything to an unstable program,” he said.

Brian Swanson, Northridge’s assistant athletic director for external affairs the last five years, left Wednesday to become associate athletic director at Cal State Los Angeles.

Here are other key changes in Northridge’s athletic department since the fall:

* Michael Abraham, women’s basketball coach, resigned after being arrested in November on charges of cocaine trafficking.

* Marwan Ass’ad, men’s soccer coach, resigned to head a West Valley-based youth league.

* Paul Bubb, athletic director, was forced to resign in the wake of the Abraham incident.

* Judy Brame, associate athletic director, was reassigned in the wake of the Abraham incident.

* Kelly Ford, softball assistant, is leaving at the end of July to become an assistant at Cal State Fullerton.

* Tara Harrington, women’s basketball assistant, is an assistant at Montana State.

* Jeff Kearin, football assistant, is an assistant at Nevada Las Vegas.

* Carrie Leary, women’s golf coach, is coach at UCLA.

* Kathleen O’Laughlin, women’s volleyball assistant, resigned.

* Brian Wiesner, women’s soccer coach, resigned after four stormy seasons.

Keep your eyes on the transactions ticker.

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If not careful, Northridge also might lose Kathleen Heitzman one of these days.

In typical fashion for the school, Heitzman apparently is overloaded, handling her duties as director of compliance along with assorted other tasks dumped on her.

They include picking up the slack for matters that were handled by Brame, who took care of compliance issues with Tom Shannon.

Even with two people, the work was overwhelming, and Heitzman was hired in March 1998 to alleviate the problem.

It looks like they’re back to square one.

Heitzman, sources said, is working a lot of overtime without compensation.

The buzz among coaches is that Heitzman is an extremely good compliance officer.

Some other school might decide to see for itself.