Traveling Costs Turn Sweet Smell of Playoff Success Sour : State tournament: High schools are dipping into their own pockets to meet expenses incurred during the postseason.

As Servite High School prepares for its first state basketball championship game, the Friars are learning that the price of success can be costly.

Athletic Director Tom Vitello said the Friars already have lost $760 traveling to a first-round regional game. They could lose as much as $1,100 more when the team travels to play Hayward Mt. Eden on Saturday in the Division III championship game at the Oakland Coliseum.

But Servite’s athletic department isn’t the only one in Orange County dipping into its pockets to meet costs during the state playoffs:

--Mater Dei expects to lose $6,000 on its trip to the state Division I championship game on Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum. The Monarchs used private donations to cover a $6,000 expense loss when they won the 1987 Division I title.

--Woodbridge High School lost about $4,500 in travel expenses when the Warriors won the 1987 Division II title.

Vitello and other athletic directors and coaches have criticized the state California Interscholastic Federation for earning a profit from the tournament while schools struggle to pay travel costs. They say teams that reach the state tournament are penalized for their success.

College teams complain when they miss out on $286,500 that the NCAA gives them for making the tournament.

“The (high school) state tournament is completely the opposite,” Woodbridge Coach Bill Shannon said. “It’s a 180-degree turnaround.”

Jerry Jelnick, Corona del Mar athletic director, said he’s not sure if the school’s athletic department can afford a trip to the state tournament next year. Corona del Mar expects to barely break even after playing a first-round regional game at San Diego Lincoln and a semifinal game at Servite.

“We’re not real happy with the state playoffs,” Jelnick said. “We don’t get anything out of it. Only reimbursement.

“It’s all negative. There’s nothing positive coming out of it. If we would have gone up to state this week, we would have had to put a lot of money up. I don’t know if we will go into the state playoffs again.”

Tom Byrnes, commissioner of athletics for the state CIF office, said last year’s state tournament earned a net profit of $160,000. He said the profit is returned to the office’s general budget to pay for operating costs.

“It’s expensive for all schools to run athletic programs,” he said. “Schools don’t get reimbursed for travel (to the state tournament) in most sports. The fact that basketball is, is a plus.

“Teams have 400 to 500 contests on all levels every year. They have to travel to get to many of them. The CIF games are just a drop in the bucket.”

The state CIF office reimburses a school 50 cents for every allotted ticket sold for a regional and state tournament game, not including box-office sales.

Adults pay $6 per ticket and students $3 per ticket for regional games. Tickets for the state finals in Oakland are $10, $8, $7 and $5.

Shannon said the policy has a major flaw.

“How many fans are going to buy a presale ticket for Oakland?” Shannon said. “If you have an immense following, let’s say you bring 1,000 fans, you still get only $500 from the tickets. That will pay for only three players to go to Oakland out of the Orange County Airport.”

The CIF also pays schools $2 a mile for teams traveling by air and $1 a mile for traveling by bus or van. The CIF also pays for meals if a team travels more than 100 miles one way.

Vitello said the reimbursement money isn’t enough.

“There should be some kind of formula that will allow us to at least break even on these things,” Vitello said. “The meal allowance and lodging I can understand. But the (assistant) coaches are paying their own way.”

Byrnes said the mileage money the state tournament offers is more than all but one section tournament. The Southern Section pays 75 cents a mile round trip for travel.

“At least there’s some reimbursement for some playoffs,” Byrnes said. “What about wrestling, track and volleyball? There’s no (travel) reimbursement at all for those sports. Team sports like basketball are better off.

“Travel expenses are not something that just occur in state playoffs. They have to play all those games all year long.”

Schools make little, if any, money off allotted ticket sales. Vitello said Servite had 500 allotted tickets for its first-round game at Lemoore March 6.

“We didn’t sell any of them,” Vitello said. “The game was on Tuesday and we found out on Sunday that we were playing up there. We had no chance to sell any. We made zero off it, zip.

“Even if we would have split the gate with Lemoore, we wouldn’t have made $100. There weren’t many people there.”

Mater Dei had no problem selling the 500 tickets allotted for each of its three state playoff games. Assistant principal John Merino said the school wasn’t given enough.

“The whole state tournament process needs to be changed,” Merino said. “The Southern Section tournament is very well organized and it benefits kids. They put the student section right by the court and the whole thing promotes schools.

“The state tournament doesn’t do that. They didn’t give us enough tickets for our games and we had people standing in line at the L.A. Sports Arena the day of the game to get us more.”

Vitello said Servite lost $760 traveling to Lemoore. Servite chartered a bus to make the 440-mile round-trip trek from Anaheim to Lemoore. The school also paid for lodging and meals for coaches, players, a trainer and cheerleader coordinator, Vitello said.

“We chartered a bus for $1,001,” Vitello said. “We were reimbursed only $1 a mile by the CIF, so we lost (about) $600 right there.”

Mater Dei spent $7,800 on travel for the 1987 state tournament, and the CIF reimbursed the school $1,800.

In the 1987 Southern Section 2-A playoffs, Woodbridge played Righetti High at Santa Maria and met Victor Valley High at Apple Valley. They played at Fresno in the Division II regional before moving to the final at Oakland.

Although the school lost money, Shannon said, reaching the state finals was worth it.

“It’s impossible to turn down the opportunity to go,” Shannon said. “You go to the tournament and then you do your best to make ends meet financially. We had a little bit of money in reserve, but mainly our school district paid for our expenses.”

Besides flying the team to the championship game, Mater Dei also brings its band and pep squad on a bus. Mater Dei, a private school, relied on donations to pay for the travel costs in 1987.

“We’re doing the same thing this year,” Merino said.

Vitello’s not sure where Servite will get the money. Servite is a private school that charges tuition, but Vitello said he has “cut our athletic budget to the bone.”

“I can’t say, ‘No, we’re not going to playoffs,’ because that hurts the kids,” Vitello said. “The only thing we can do is ask the parents to make up the difference. We’re going to pass the hat and hope we can collect enough to make up at least part of our costs.”

Byrnes said schools get to keep profits from concessions on home games; that helps pay for travel costs.

“That can be a pretty nice trade-off,” Byrnes said.

Servite made $250 from presale tickets when it played host to Corona del Mar in the Division III semifinals. But all the concessions money went to the booster club instead of the school’s budget.

In an attempt to trim expenses, Vitello suggested that the team charter two vans for the trip to the state finals in Oakland.

“The players’ parents wanted the kids to fly up there and be relaxed in time for the game,” Vitello said. “We expect to (spend) at least another $4,600 on this trip. And after the CIF reimburses us, I’d say we will get roughly half of that back.”

Vitello said Father Patrick Donovan, Servite’s principal, is writing a letter of appeal to the CIF office asking for more reimbursement for the Lemoore trip.

“We’re asking for $200 to $300 of the ($1,960) total,” Vitello said.

Corona del Mar Coach Paul Orris said the travel reimbursements are one of many issues troubling the state tournament.

“It’s a second-class operation,” Orris said. “When we went out to the CIF office to get the draws, they gave us nothing like rosters or who we were dealing with or when we played. There are a lot problems that need to be ironed out.

“I don’t think it’s fair that Southern California teams have to drive up to Oakland every year. Why not have the tournament at alternating sites each year?”

Jelnick said it’s up to the schools to help find an answer.

“If enough people are complaining, maybe we should sit down and look at this,” he said. “If they ask everyone to play and if everyone says no, then let’s see what they do.”

STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS

Friday at the Oakland Coliseum

Boys Division V El Cajon Christian vs. Colusa 4:15 p.m. Division IV Santa Clara vs. Travis AFB Vanden 8 p.m. Girls Division V Menlo School of Atherton vs. Rosamond 2:30 p.m. Division IV Santa Maria St. Joseph vs. Moraga Campolinda 6:15 p.m.

Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum

Boys Division III Servite vs. Hayward Mt. Eden 11:15 a.m. Division II Artesia vs. Sunnyvale Fremont 3 p.m. Division I Mater Dei vs. San Francisco Riordan 7 p.m. Girls Division III Brea-Olinda vs. Auburn Placer 9:30 a.m. Division II Ramon vs. Muir 1:15 p.m. Division I Morningside vs. Berkeley 4:45 p.m.