OCC games slashed

Bryce Alderton

An attempt to reduce a gaping hole in the state’s budget has forced

community college schools such as Orange Coast College to cut

everything from classes to teachers, and now regular-season and

playoff games for the OCC sports teams

In March the state’s governing body, the Commission on Athletics,

approved the reductions in the playoff formats, which began last fall

and continue into the spring season. The reverberations from the

March decision can still be felt, especially among the coaches, who

have shown a general disdain of the new schedules.

The cuts were made on a one-year trial period in hopes the state’s

financial picture will be a little more rosy in 2005.

“We had to come up with a standard across the state that saves

more than others,” said COA Commissioner Joanne Fortunato. “The

presidents didn’t want colleges to drop sports, so they cut down the

number of [games] across the board. Many athletic directors are happy

to have sports and save money.”

Every softball team in the state had its regular-season schedule

reduced by 30% while baseball took a 20% hit. Football lost a

scrimmage. Every other sport had its schedule reduced by 15%.

OCC’s baseball team had its regular-season schedule reduced from

44 to 36 games and a new playoff system has further irked Coast Coach

John Altobelli.

The regional playoffs will now feature single-elimination games

instead of the best-of-three format used in past years. The state

championship will feature one team each from Northern and Southern

California in a two-day, single-elimination structure.

“I hate it, everyone hates it,” Altobelli said. “There is not a

coach out there who is for it. At any other level it is

two-out-of-three, three-out-of-five or four-out-of-seven. Baseball is

a unique animal. It is just unfortunate because the [players] work so

hard all year and to only have a one-game playoff? This needs to be

looked at closer and there are a lot of people looking to get it

changed.”

OCC Athletic Director Fred Hokanson doesn’t like the cuts, but

felt they were fair across the board for each sport.

“Everyone is being hit. No one is ever happy with cuts,” Hokanson

said. “This is not permanent.”

The onus of paying officials often makes up a majority of the

costs schools must dish out, which was also a concern, Hokanson said.

“When you cut down on contests, you cut down on officials and cut

down on travel expenses,” Hokanson said. “We are trying as a unit to

save money.”

A school can pay $300 in officials fees per game, Hokanson said.

Six fewer games means a savings of $1,800.

“For better or worse, we complain about things before they

happen,” Hokanson said. “[Coaches] complain about not being

equitable, but we haven’t gone through it yet. We are trying to save

our whole department. We didn’t eliminate any teams.”

The COA took recommendations from the state’s athletic directors

at a conference in San Diego at the end of the last school year,

Hokanson said.

There will be no Southern California individual regional champion

in tennis this year, one of the several changes in the sport.

Play in the regionals will stop in both doubles and singles after

the quarterfinals and will span one day instead of two. The state

team tournament will feature eight-game pro sets. All matches at the

state tournament will be two sets with a 10-point super tiebreaker

(if needed) to decide the match.

Part of the attempt to save money is limiting teams’ overnight

stays.

“They figure those that make it to the semis will go into the

state tournament, otherwise, they would be guessing at seeds,” said

OCC women’s tennis coach Janice Maran, who is not in favor of the

revised system. “No one is a winner. There is no champion and no

runner-up [in the regionals]. It doesn’t allow for the upset, which

you always [should have].

“It’s like playing basketball and whoever gets to 100 points

[wins], rather than playing out the whole game. For instance,

reducing the third set to a tiebreaker is not how tennis is played.”

OCC’s regular-season schedule was reduced from 21 to 18 matches.

“I know budgets are smaller for everybody, but if the school

really loves athletics and wants the programs to go, they need to

help them,” Maran said.

Another casualty of the budget crunch has been adjunct (walk-on)

and assistant coaches, who have suffered pay reductions, Hokanson

said. In some cases, assistants were let go.

Four men’s volleyball teams will qualify for the state tournament,

a single-elimination, one-day event. There will be no regionals.

The state basketball tournament will halve its tournament field to

include four schools (two from both the north and the south) and be

reduced from two to three days. OCC had its regular-season schedule

trimmed by four games.

The COA board will meet Feb. 18 at a conference at a hotel near

Los Angeles International Airport. Fortunato said athletic directors

will be able to meet and discuss whether to continue or abolish the

current structure and make any recommendations.

“We are doing the best job we can,” Fortunato said. “We are not in

Fort Knox. The economy is across the board. Coaches see their own

sport and I would expect them to do that. But they don’t have to

balance an athletic budget.”

Even sports hasn’t escaped the fiscal tentacles of a monster

seemingly out of control.

“I remember back in 1981 or 1983 when OCC was in such dire

financial straits that they laid off teachers,” Hokanson recalled.

“We had to cut over 1,000 [class] sections [this year]. We’ve had

these problems before, but the state hasn’t been $30 billion in the

red before. Everyone is hurt here.”