Don’t expect any quick solutions for Eagles, Mesa

ROGER CARLSON

This ongoing story of Costa Mesa, and Estancia, high school coaches

and their athletes and the problems they endure with the Newport-Mesa

Unified School District, as well as the city of Costa Mesa’s

involvement, takes on hemophiliac tendencies.

It just keeps bleeding. And chances are it’s not going to stop,

although I see a faint ray of hope in the form of Costa Mesa resident

Mark Gleason, who has surfaced with uncommon insight and know-how.

What began as a dilemma in Costa Mesa over the lack of playing

fields and gymnasiums, which seemingly found some answers with a

joint use agreement, has done nothing less than destroy a coaching

system at the Costa Mesa High campus, which finds the Mustangs

beginning the 2004-05 season with a new football coach, new

basketball coach, new baseball coach, new track and field coach and a

new athletic director.

And none of this had to happen if the powers that be, the school

district and the city, had put together an agreement that would have

given the coaches confidence that things would get better in a system

historically plagued by problems.

The concept was how to accommodate the demand for playing fields

and find more money, through fees, to feed into the school district’s

bank account, as well as the city’s.

According to the joint use agreement, the school district’s

general fund gets the fees from usage of the gyms and pools and the

city gets the fees from usage of the fields and handles the

scheduling and monitors fields.

Whatever problems the coaches were having, or would have, was not

an issue.

What these two bodies did was to come up with a plan to give the

recreation department complete control on the school’s campuses

during specific times of the day and week, and then direct the

coaches to comply to unbending rules.

How specific? Aside from games in the regular season and potential

CIF playoff games, the recreation department took control during

nonschool hours, starting at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and all day

on weekends.

You’re a coach and your practice has just lasted five minutes

beyond the schedule. You, who have spent untold hours of your own

time caring and tending to the baseball field, are in violation,

whether anyone else is waiting for field usage, or not, and policemen

are not far away.

Why is the coach doing all this yard work? Because no one else

would.

Former Costa Mesa High basketball coach Bob Serven offered this

example:

As he tells it, “ambassadors” showed up early to get a youth

endeavor started at the Costa Mesa High gym, stood around for a good

amount of time, then demanded that Serven open the doors ahead of the

actual starting time as he was departing after his morning practice.

Serven, who had to clean the place up when he got there for his

practice after it was left askew from the previous “recreation”

group, wouldn’t comply, citing time demands and litigation concerns,

leaving the “ambassadors” to get the gym opened on their own watch

some 15 minutes later.

He was cited for being “uncooperative” and was directed by the

school district to respond with written answers to charges made by

recreation department personnel.

A couple of the baseball scenarios are classic.

Former coach Doug Deats offered these examples:

As he tells it, while on his field to mow the field, edge and rake

in the scheme of his normal groundskeeping duties, naturally on his

own time, twice he was threatened with tickets by the “ambassadors”

if he didn’t move his truck, which he had used to haul his own

equipment, because it was parked adjacent to the baseball diamond.

Deats also spoke of his junior varsity/freshman coach who watched

his team removed from the practice field at 5 p.m., presumably so the

crows could have their time on the field unabated.

Those examples are mere tips of the iceberg.

Meanwhile, the former athletic director, Dave Perkins, found

nothing but frustration in his bids to stop this insanity.

I have a theory that Newport-Mesa Unified School District

Superintendent Robert Barbot and his underlings enjoy nothing better

than the status quo. Why? The district is able to avoid scheduling,

the city will do it. And it avoids the upkeep, which the city doesn’t

provide, either. What’s more, it helps stifle the school’s coaches.

Wendy Leece of the Parks and Recreation Department, and city

councilmember Michael Scheafer, both strongly encourage the release

of the two schools from the agreement.

Trouble in Newport Beach? Not at all.

The school district has a similar agreement with the city of

Newport Beach, only it doesn’t involve Corona del Mar and Newport

Harbor high schools. Why? The city of Newport Beach doesn’t want the

high schools involved because it would cost too much to live up to

the bargain, as in tending to the fields. The city of Costa Mesa,

meanwhile, uses the fields and does little in upkeep.

Could it be worse?

It is. Even if the city opted to release the high schools, nothing

can take effect for at least two years if the school district does

not agree, according to the collaborative agreement of July 1, 2002.

When they began this endeavor of a joint use agreement it should

have begun with an above board approach, including athletic directors

and coaches, with promises to leave the facilities better than they

were when they arrived, with final decisions given to the coaches at

these two schools, not to a recreation department director. And

monies derived should have been earmarked for the schools’

cash-strapped athletic programs.

“Ambassadors” should have been used to monitor youth groups and

how they leave the premises, and call for immediate help to put the

place back in order. Coaches shouldn’t even have known someone had

been there. They’d also have monitored their own workers to make sure

they were, indeed, cleaning the place, as opposed to just sitting

around contemplating their navels.

So the agreement hi-jacked the coaches, allowing the Recreation

Department to demand some three weeks of advance time to consider

their requests, and the results were predictable.

When coaches returned and found the area in shambles their

complaints to the city were answered with -- “It’s not our problem,

that’s the district’s problem.”

A second call to the school district would bring forth the same

push-off: “It’s not our problem,” that’s the city’s responsibility.

So the coach winds up with the janitor’s duties, at zero cents per

hour.

Further frustration comes in the area of baseball.

From Estancia comes the following from the baseball boosters

president Dan Oliver, who offers photographic documentation.

The photos, taken July 30, are of both high schools, Davis

Elementary and nearby Parker School and he addresses concerns of

safety because of the uneven and inconsistent surfaces, as well as

structural damage and the practice of parking tractor trailers and

cars on the track and field area at Costa Mesa during the running of

the Orange County Fair.

As Oliver puts it, describing a program he calls “joint missuse:

“These are 107 images of Parker School, directly behind Estancia

High, which is rented out to club soccer, Estancia soccer, junior

varsity baseball, softball, varsity baseball, football and fields for

track and field.

“Lastly, the ‘Farm Complex,’ which looks perfect, doesn’t it? I

wonder why?”

You can see all of Oliver’s photos by going to

https://www.estanciabaseball.org

conditions7-30-04pixindex.htm.

Many of the athletic fields at Estancia and Costa Mesa are worse

than the baseball scenario.

The basic consensus is that very little will change, this is not a

big issue with the school district or the city of Costa Mesa.

Only a crippling injury on these fields of shame, or a

class-action civil suit will really wake anyone up.

Meanwhile, Costa Mesa and Estancia field athletics, varsity,

junior varsity and frosh-soph boys and girls soccer, baseball and

softball, should demand all of their home events be conducted on the

city’s soccer fields known as “The Farm Complex,” and at TeWinkle

Park.

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].