Controversy Hanging Over a New School

Founders of new San Juan Capistrano Serra High were hoping that it wouldn’t be too long before their teams would rule the roost in Orange County athletics and, by most appearances in recent months, they seemed off to a good start.

A former major college administrator was trumpeted as the first athletic director; a playoff-savvy football coach was hired away from another school; and a well-known former local basketball star was brought on to guide the school’s boys’ team.

But along the way mistakes were made, some grave enough that the governing body for the majority of Southern California high schools was ready to hit the school’s sports program with penalties a year before its first varsity game was scheduled to be played.

The situation at Serra will be discussed as a regularly scheduled meeting of the Southern Section executive council in Pasadena today, and section commissioner Jim Staunton said Friday that only this week had he decided not to use that forum to mete out punishment.

Staunton said Serra has acknowledged two recruiting violations -- one involving a middle school football player, the other illegal contact with a basketball player from another high school. The school avoided sanctions, the commissioner said, in part because Serra Principal Tom Waszak sent a letter to section officials detailing corrective measures he had taken, including the dismissal of an assistant coach and the appointment of a school administrator to oversee athletics.

“A number of steps have been put into place ... to be in compliance,” Staunton said. “These steps are very positive. I’m satisfied that the right corrective measures are in place.”

Staunton said the since-fired Serra assistant violated undue influence rules when he contacted an eighth-grade public school student and persuaded him to enroll at Serra to play football. Armando Gonzalez, who resigned as Serra’s head football coach last month and took a similar position at Dana Point Dana Hills, was cleared of any wrongdoing.

In the other matter, Staunton said at least one member of Serra’s basketball staff made illegal contact with Brian Molina, a guard on Costa Mesa High’s team.

Dave Perkins, Costa Mesa’s athletic director, said Molina told him that Serra Coach Tom Lewis had phoned him at home last June to discuss a possible transfer. Perkins said Molina’s father, Enrique, told him a similar story. Enrique Molina declined to comment for this story.

Lewis is a former high school All-American from Santa Ana Mater Dei, who went on to play at USC and Pepperdine.

Perkins said that after he had notified the Southern Section he received a call from one of Serra’s founders, Marc Spizzirri, who was then listed as chairman of the Serra athletic department.

The Costa Mesa coach said Spizzirri told him to “stop digging into this” or “we will need to get lawyers involved.” Shortly after, Serra canceled a scheduled junior varsity football game with Costa Mesa. Spizzirri, who own multiple South Orange County car dealerships, said Perkins’ charges are baseless.

The “CIF asked if we wanted to sign a complaint against Costa Mesa, and I did not,” he said. “We are new. We know everybody is watching, We are under a tremendous amount of scrutiny. Our intention is nothing but compli- ance ... “

Molina, now a sophomore, attended some summer practices at Serra but eventually returned to Costa Mesa.

Waszak attributed the errors to growing pains and said critics should focus more attention on areas such as academics and spirituality, where, he said, Serra has made great strides.

The Southern Section’s findings of violations are only part of the controversy swirling around the opening of the 180-student, independent Catholic school.Issues include:

* An ongoing battle with the Juanero Indian tribe over a 29-acre former ancestral burial site where Serra wants to build athletic fields and a performing arts center.

As a backup, Serra officials attempted to reach an agreement to use the athletic facilities at nearby Soka University in Aliso Viejo. Soka Athletic Director Keith Shackleford said he scuttled those plans after becoming convinced that Serra’s sports program was a rudderless “play toy for a couple of rich guys.”

* The coaching departure of Gonzalez, who complained that school officials meddled in the way he ran his football program. He had been hired away from Los Angeles Franklin, which he led to 17 consecutive playoff appearances and four City Section titles.

* The resignation of former National Football League running back Aaron Craver as track and field coach two weeks into the school year. Craver says he left because Serra officials reneged on promises to enroll two inner-city athletes.

* Advertisements promoting the school’s athletic program on an Orange County TV station, a possible violation of Southern Section rules on self-promotion.

* The listing of former Cal athletic director John Kasser as Serra’s “Executive Director of Athletics and Recreational Sports.” Kasser, vice president and general manager of Pac-10 Properties, the conference’s marketing venture, said he offered his help to launch Serra but that he has never been employed by the school. He said a request he made to Spizzirri to have his name removed from the school’s website went unanswered for months. It was removed late Friday afternoon.

* Jeopardizing the eligibility of UC Irvine’s swimming and diving team by listing Anteater diving Coach Curtis Wilson on its website and in information distributed to media as its diving coach, a violation of NCAA rules. Wilson, a staff member of the Crown Valley Divers club, said he only discussed opportunities for the club with a Serra official.

Waszak attributed most of the difficulties to “the immensity of starting a school, all the things that have to get done with personnel, administration and handbooks ...

“We’ve made some progress,” he added. “We have put a process in place. We have great thing going on here. It’s a lot of work. We still have a lot of work to do. But one day we’ll look back and see where we were five years ago and it will be fantastic.”