FAIR TERRITORY

For more than a year, Stephanie Varlotta tried to convince administrators at Los Angeles University High that something was seriously wrong with the Warrior softball program.

Just weeks before the season was to start, there was no coach. The pitching rubber was broken. The field was a health hazard, with patches of grass growing in the all-dirt infield. There was no summer program, not even an off-season class to teach fundamentals.

“I’m not fighting for anything exuberant or extravagant,” said Varlotta, a tenacious senior who pitches and plays infield for the University softball team. “I just want our field to look like the baseball field.”

Varlotta complained to the athletic director, the assistant principal and the Los Angeles Unified School District’s local superintendent’s office. She made repeated phone calls to maintenance operations.

No one took action. Finally, she had had enough.

“I was fed up,” Varlotta said. “Four coaches in four years, we don’t have dugouts, we’ve had a girl sprain her ankle because the field is so bad. It was excuse after excuse.”

So, in January, she filed a Title IX complaint with the LAUSD office of Educational Equity Compliance, which monitors and enforces federal and state discrimination laws within the district. Varlotta alleged that University was not providing equal athletic opportunities for members of both sexes.

Varlotta pointed out that the baseball team has a field that’s reseeded each year, has a scoreboard, dugouts and batting cage, a summer program, an off-season baseball class and a stable coaching staff.

The problems aren’t unique to University. Two other LAUSD schools are facing similar mandates to correct inequities after Title IX complaints. Woodland Hills Taft is building a softball diamond adjacent to its baseball field, so it won’t have to play its home games at a park. Granada Hills Kennedy is scheduled to build a softball field after its new gymnasium is completed this year.

Those improvements are coming about because coaches intervened and filed complaints.

What is unique about University’s situation is that it came to light because of the courage of an 18-year-old student.

“It’s a very simple idea,” Varlotta said. “The boys get new grass, the girls get new grass; the boys have dugouts, the girls have dugouts.”

Varlotta documented her equity complaint so thoroughly, complete with photos, that within days administrators started to pay attention.

“I was summoned by the principal, who was shocked I didn’t go to her first,” Varlotta said.

Varlotta recalled three times trying to meet Principal Cynthia Ann Petty, only to be passed on to the assistant principal.

Kevin O’Connell, specialist in the Educational Equity section, conducted an investigation and determined that University was in violation of LAUSD equity policy.

By spring break, new dugouts were built on the softball diamond, complete with wood roofs and enclosed fencing. A new pitching rubber was put in.

On April 17, Varlotta signed a compliance agreement, accepting the school’s commitment to make major changes to upgrade the softball program. Among the changes:

* A softball fundamentals class will be offered next year.

* A softball coach must be hired no later than Oct. 31.

* The school must close the softball field so that it can be graded, reseeded and comparable to the field used by the baseball program.

* The school must allocate the burden of field damage between softball and baseball.

* The school must develop a plan to purchase and install a scoreboard for the softball team.

In a letter to Varlotta, O’Connell concluded, “Because of your tremendous determination and sense of fairness, girls in your school and within your district who currently participate, or who someday will participate in a softball program, shall benefit.”

All Varlotta wanted was as much chance to succeed in softball as the boys have in baseball.

She’s the senior class president. She played youth baseball growing up. Her boyfriend is former All-City pitcher Ethan Katz. She never tried to ruin the baseball program to save softball.

“I’m proud of her,” Katz said. “Someone had to do it. She’s hard-nosed, demanding and isn’t going to give up easily. She wasn’t going to stop no matter how far she had to go up the ladder to get this done.”

Ray Blum, athletic director at University, said finding a coach for softball “is difficult.” He said the failure to build dugouts in a timely manner was because of district bureaucracy. He said the reason baseball has more amenities for its field than softball is fund-raising.

But Deanne Neiman, director of the Educational Equity section, said there were plenty of opportunities for the school to intervene and correct the inequities.

“The school could have pursued this had they paid attention and taken it seriously,” she said.

O’Connell can think of a good way to recognize Varlotta’s contributions to the school and the girls’ sports program. “I think they should name the field after her,” he said. “She’s a senior and knows she’s not going to benefit from this compliance plan, but she knows other girls are going to come along and benefit.”

Varlotta is simply grateful that the system worked.

“I hope other schools will follow suit,” she said. “I’ve never seen administrators turn around so quickly. It made me so happy and so proud. I can’t wait to come back next year and see a scoreboard and green grass growing.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.