Girls Team’s Goal: Even Playing Field

It’s more than symbolic to the girls of the Los Altos High School soccer team that their playing field is uneven. It has a wide hump in the middle and then slopes downward.

The girls team has always had to practice and play varsity soccer at a middle school a good 20-minute walk from their Hacienda Heights school. The boys team has always practiced and played on a nicer soccer field on campus.

The boys use campus bathrooms. The girls use a portable toilet. The boys change in their locker room. The girls often must form a circle on the field, hold up towels or T-shirts and change in the middle.

It’s been 15 years and the girls soccer team of Los Altos High School has had enough. They and their angry parents say they will no longer accept the uneven playing field and are taking their concerns to the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District board tonight.

“It’s not fair that the boys get to stay on campus and we have to leave,” said player Nina Lopez, 15. “It shows that we are not good enough.”

Making matters worse, some say, is Principal Donald F. White’s solution: Let the girls practice and play on campus but send the boys soccer team to Newton Middle School.

“That’s no solution at all. Now you are shortchanging the boys,” said parent Richard Moran. “And you are pitting the boys against the girls.”

Peace and parity are important issues in the Moran household. Moran’s son and daughter both play soccer at Los Altos.

“It’s pretty cheap,” said Daniel Moran, summing up the situation in 15-year-old succinctness. “We’ve got to find a way so that everyone can use the fields--boys, girls, varsity, JV.”

Experts say the Los Altos situation is all too common throughout California, if not the country. While colleges have generally tried to provide men and women athletes comparable facilities, high schools tend to lag behind, often because of scarce resources.

At Los Altos, past complaints from girls’ parents--the periodic phone calls, letters and talks with the coaches--did not lead to changes in the Los Altos High tradition of sending the girls team off campus, according to parent leaders.

Principal White is in Europe on vacation and could not be reached. In a letter to a parent, he wrote, “Hopefully, our discussions will contribute to a mutual understanding of our ongoing effort to provide the best possible programs for all of our student athletes.”

The assistant principal is also on vacation. The athletic director did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Interim schools Supt. Maureen Scanlon, a 33-year district veteran, said she is surprised by the level of frustration among parents and students because “I’ll be honest with you, I never once had a complaint. Never.”

Everyone will be back from vacation Aug. 20, she said. “We will bring all the stakeholders together. That’s still early enough to do something about this.”

A recent afternoon on the field was typical of the conditions during the playing season, girls team members said. The schoolyard gate was locked. The players and their parents had to squeeze through a slender opening in the fence--an awkward maneuver at best for some adults.

“Here I am with my stroller and diaper bag and I have to crawl through a fence to see my daughter,” said one mother. “When we played at Diamond Bar, we got to use the football field.”

The sprinklers are perennially broken, leaving behind 10-inch, mud-filled holes. Two girls tripped and fell last season in the holes, one spraining her ankle, the other fracturing her wrist. To alert visiting players of the dangers, the team flags the holes with red pylons.

And then there is the field itself.

“We have humps, bumps, hills and holes,” said Joanna Valenzuela.

It does not surprise experts in women’s athletics that the Los Altos situation festered for years. Back in 1985 when the girls soccer team started up, everyone was probably happy just to have a team, today’s parents said.

“It’s always been, ‘Dump off the girls at Newton,’ ” said Cynthia Villa, 16, referring to the middle school. “It’s easier. Put the boys over the girls.”

But federal and state laws preventing discrimination in women’s sports have been tested since then. Experts said the Los Altos girls appear to have good cause for a civil rights complaint, if not a lawsuit.

“The law requires that girls have the same access to fields, facilities and equipment as the boys do,” said Susan Fogel, legal director for the California Women’s Law Center. “For these girls to be forced to play in such disadvantaged conditions is arguably a violation of the law.”

But the scenario at Los Altos is all too common, especially in high schools.

“What happens is that you get used to it,” said Paula Pearlman, who was a lead attorney in two groundbreaking California cases that have lead to better conditions for female athletes in schools and cities.

One case involved the city of Los Angeles, which recently agreed to support stronger athletic programs for girls at city parks.

“Usually, it reaches a point of unfairness where it doesn’t pass the stomach test anymore,” Pearlman said. “It’s just unfair.”

Regina Martinez couldn’t agree more.

“It’s just not right,” said the mother of an incoming Los Altos freshman player. “These girls need a voice and they need to learn how to stand up for what is right.”

With e-mail lightning she has mobilized team members and their parents. Her efforts led to a meeting with the principal on Aug. 1. The next day he sent Martinez the letter in which he proposed sending the boys team off campus instead.

The parents and the girls have what they think is a better idea. They want everyone--coaches, parents, booster club leaders--to sit down at a table and figure out an equitable schedule.

“If there are conflicts,” said player Joanna Valenzuela, 15, “we are willing to change our schedules, anything. There has got to be a solution.”

In his letter the principal offered another perk for the girls. They will be allowed to play one afternoon varsity game on the football field.

But Villa and the other senior girls dream of something bigger--a night game.

“It would be so cool if we could play just one game on the football field. One game under lights,” Villa said. “We will find a way to pay for the light, if that’s what it takes. Just one game that our parents and friends would come to watch.”