Perry Seeking Alternative to Spring Leagues

Jim Perry, boys’ athletic director and basketball coach at La Quinta High School, told the Southern Section general council Thursday that it is time to eliminate profitable, privately run spring basketball leagues and said he would propose an alternative.

Perry, past president of the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches’ Assn., told the council that high school players are paying from $90 to $125 to play in the nine-week leagues, which are independent of the section’s high schools.

“There are currently seven spring leagues operating in Southern California, and some of them are drawing up to 200 players,” Perry said. “Some quick mathematics will tell you that someone is getting awfully wealthy if you’re charging $100 per player.”

Southern Section rules prohibit high school coaches from working with their athletes during the school year outside the season, which ends with the State basketball championship the first weekend of April.

Spring leagues such as Issy Washington’s Slam-n-Jam and Rich Goldberg’s American Roundball Corp. generally run from early April until the end of May.

“We’re finding that some players are developing bad habits and inflated egos by playing in these leagues,” Perry said.

Perry also said the spring leagues, which choose all-star teams that then play in the summer, adversely affect school-affiliated summer leagues.

“The top players now have divided loyalties between their schools and a league’s all-star team,” he said.

Perry said the association is working under former Southern Section Commissioner Ray Plutko to provide an alternative league directed by its 200 coaches. The league would be free to players.

“The kids want to play,” Perry said, “and we’d like the opportunity to provide them an alternative that won’t cost a kid’s parents $100.”

Perry is hoping the council will support the association’s plan at the next general council meeting in September. He anticipates some resistance by those who think the coaches would be violating the season-of-sport rule.

In other council action, section principals:

--Approved a proposal that will provide for a 1992 dual meet wrestling team championship tournament similar to those held in tennis and badminton. Currently, only individual weight championships are contested at the section level.