Sacred Heart Students Asked to Cut Activities : School Targets Club Volleyball Conflicts

Julie Fabian, a sophomore at Flintridge Sacred Heart High, has a long history of athletic involvement. At the La Canada campus, Fabian has participated on the volleyball, basketball and softball teams and she plays club volleyball, none of which has been detrimental to her classroom work.

So Fabian was somewhat shocked when Athletic Director Bill Sanchez informed her of a new school policy that “strongly recommended” that no Flintridge Sacred Heart athlete participate on an outside team during the season of a school sport. The policy was mainly aimed at curbing participation in club volleyball, which coupled with high school volleyball season keeps an athlete on the volleyball court nearly year-round.

“We’re trying to protect our student-athletes from overextending themselves in the classroom or physically,” Sanchez said. “It’s not understood by a lot of people because they don’t look at it from the long-term aspect. We’re looking out for the girls academically before athletically.”

Fabian has been an exception to the rule, excelling on both counts. She was one of the basketball team’s top players, averaging nearly 12 points a game, and she maintains a B+ grade-point average.

“I admit it can be trying,” Fabian said. “But I’m the type of person that has to be doing something all the time. I do much better in school when I have more to do.”

But even if that were not the case, some parents believe that it is their right to decide when a child is overextended--and not the school’s. Bena Fabian, Julie’s mother, said that Julie had been enrolled in Flintridge Sacred Heart because of its college prep curriculum and its athletic history. Flintridge Sacred Heart has won the Southern Section Small Schools Division volleyball championship the past two seasons.

“I feel it’s a decision that should be made by the parents and the child,” Bena Fabian said. “I think I was a little angry at first. I can definitely see the problem with it. As she gets older it’s becoming more of a problem. The competition gets stiffer and it gets more intense every year.

“I appreciate the school’s concern for the girls but a parent should know what the child can handle.”

Isabella Seplecha, who this season coached the basketball team while Sanchez was on sabbatical, felt the direct effect of the rule. Several athletes involved in club volleyball opted not to play on the basketball team.

“Who knows if they would have helped us out,” Seplecha said. “But it was not the most pleasant of situations. I think both the athletic department and the parents have realized that no one was trying to be an ogre.”

While relations between the parents and faculty have improved, a barrier remains between the school and the club in question--the San Gabriel Volleyball Club.

Sanchez, who coached volleyball at Loyola High and the Foothill Volleyball Club, said that many girls are lured into playing club volleyball by coaches who hint that club participation will produce a college scholarship.

“Our relationship with the school is not good,” said George Yamashita, a coach at the SGVC and women’s coach at Loyola Marymount. “There is definitely a difference in philosophy. I wish there was a way we could work it out.”

Yamashita said that without club participation there is little chance that a Small Schools athlete will earn the needed recognition.

“Not many girls earn college scholarships and we don’t allude to the premise,” Yamashita said. “But we expose a player and give them the best opportunity to be seen.”

Would Yamashita ever consider scouting Small School volleyball matches for hidden talent?

“I would never go to a game like that unless it was out of courtesy,” he said.