Southern Section Keeps Contact Rule

The vote was closer than expected, but the result was still the same: Another attempt to vote down the so-called “association rule” had come up short at a Southern Section meeting.

For the second time in six years, Commissioner Jim Staunton said, a Southern Section rule that limits coaches’ off-season contact with players was kept in place, this time by a surprisingly slim 41-30 vote by league representatives Thursday in Long Beach. Similar proposals to strike down the association rule had been soundly defeated in the past, some not making it to a vote.

The Southern Section is the only one of 10 sections in the state with the association rule, which bars coaches from coaching their own players on club teams. The City Section, for instance, allows coaches to have year-round contact with players with few limitations.

A proposal sponsored by the Almont League said the “playing field is not equal” because of the rule.

Athletic Director Tim Murphy of Montebello High, a school in the Almont League, said the rule hurts players and families who cannot afford to pay for club sports during the off-season. Repealing the rule would have allowed athletes year-round access to coaches and on-campus facilities, Murphy said.

“It’s become the haves and the have-nots: People who can afford to send their kids to camps or clubs and can afford private coaching, and those who cannot,” Murphy said. “We think it’s very unfair because kids are discriminated against.”

Moorpark Athletic Director Rob Dearborn said the Marmonte League voted to keep the rule because repealing it “opens up too big of a can of worms.”

Dearborn said athletes who play two or three sports would practically disappear if a high school coach were allowed year-round contact with players. “We’re a big believer in a multi-sport athlete,” he said.

In other action, the section released its budget for the 2003-04 school year with projected income of $2.1 million. Expenses are also expected to be $2.1 million.

-- Mike Bresnahan

The seventh San Gabriel Valley senior all-star girls’ basketball game will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pasadena Blair High.

Leigh Brockway and Letty Orozco, co-coaches at La Puente Bassett, will coach the East squad and Alhambra Keppel’s Minnie Caluag will coach the West.

The boys’ game has been canceled.

An all-star basketball game matching City vs. Southern Section players is set for Saturday at L.A. Jefferson High. The girls’ game starts at 2:30 p.m., with the boys’ game set for 4.

Three Long Beach Poly girls’ relay teams qualified for finals Thursday at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

The Jackrabbits were the top qualifier in the 400 relay at 45.23 seconds and in the 3,200 at 9 minutes 9 seconds. In the 1,600 relay, they had the second-fastest time at 3:43.52. Shana Woods, a freshman at Poly, was third in the long jump with a lifetime best of 19-7.