Junior Varsity Playoffs Are Waste of Resources

With 17 division championships in football, 24 in basketball, nine in baseball and nine in softball between the City and Southern sections, the last thing high school sports needs is another trophy ceremony.

So what in the name of common sense is the City Section doing by holding junior varsity playoffs in boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ volleyball, softball and baseball?

It is a waste of money and manpower. Junior varsity playoffs will cost individual schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District close to $30,000 at a time of rising fuel costs and dwindling funds.

Before this year, only the girls had JV playoffs. That decision dates to the 1970s, when there were fewer girls’ sports. Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education and requires gender equity in school sports, has helped rectify that disparity.

But last December, girls’ coaches within the City Section refused to give up their JV playoffs. That caused the Interscholastic Athletic Committee to add boys’ JV playoffs as a gender-equity response.

Most boys’ varsity coaches didn’t request the JV playoffs and have no idea why they are needed. And they have no intention of keeping their best players on the JV teams once the varsity playoffs begin. So the JV playoffs will be a glorified youth tournament, paid for by funds that should go toward varsity events or saved for the next inevitable financial crisis.

The girls’ JV playoffs should have been canceled because they are no longer needed. Even the girls’ coaches concede there are enough teams to be equal with the boys.

But Kim McEwen, a past president of the Coaches of Los Angeles Women’s Sports, said, “I think it’s a philosophical thing. For those [JV] kids, it’s the most important thing in the world. We believe as an association it’s important for kids to play for something.”

In a perfect world, there could be JV playoffs everywhere. Even freshman-sophomore playoffs. But in reality, there’s not enough money, facilities or coaching hours. And the emphasis should remain on varsity competition.

Any coach who wins a City JV championship and dares to hang a banner in his gym will be dismissed with laughter. That’s because any competent varsity coach will have already promoted the best JV players for the varsity playoffs.

Rick Prizant, athletic director at Lake Balboa Birmingham, put into perspective the crux of the problem in the City Section: “No one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings.”

When gas prices rise above $3 a gallon in a matter of months and the search begins to cut expenses because of transportation costs, JV playoffs deserve to be No. 1 on the chopping block.

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