Swimmers Look to Strike Deal

NORTHRIDGE —  With a glimmer of hope provided by the one-year stay of execution Cal State Northridge granted its men’s soccer team, swimming Coach Barry Schreifels has devised a plan he hopes will save his program for a year.

“We are like the cockroach you just can’t kill,” said Schreifels, whose men’s team has been on the verge of elimination for several years. “If you are around for one year, who knows what might happen after that? My intent is to keep us alive and see what happens.”

Last week Northridge cited budget and gender-equity concerns when announcing the elimination of four men’s sports: baseball, soccer, swimming and volleyball.

But soccer Coach Marwan Ass’ad met with Blenda J. Wilson, the university president, and said he could raise about $17,000 for the program’s operation if his team was allowed to compete in 1997. Gender-equity requirements don’t need to be met until 1998.

Ass’ad’s plan was approved Tuesday, raising the eyebrows of Schreifels and volleyball Coach John Price. Baseball Coach Mike Batesole remained pessimistic that there was any hope for his team, which has much higher budget requirements than the other sports.

Ronald Kopita, Northridge’s vice president in charge of student affairs, wouldn’t comment on the possibility of other sports making deals similar to the one struck by the soccer team.

“We did not lay this out as an option for any of the coaches,” he said. “This was just a matter of one coach coming to us.”

At least one more is on the way. Schreifels said he was on the phone Wednesday trying to set up an appointment with Wilson to plead his case.

“I would certainly be interested in reading a proposal,” Wilson said. “I think the critical questions would be whether the resources are real or speculative.”

Operating the men’s swimming team for one more season would only cost about $4,000 beyond the salaries and scholarships the school is already committed to paying, Schreifels said.

“If I need $4,000 or $5,000 or $6,000, I think I could [raise] that immediately,” he said. “I think I could do that in one day.”

Price, still bitter about the entire process that resulted in his program’s elimination, said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue fund-raising for one more season.

“If this was an option, how come we weren’t given it a week before we were cut instead of a week after?” Price said. “If I would have known this was an option, I definitely would have given it consideration.

“If they would have come to the four coaches that got cut before they announced the cuts, all four could have been saved. Even if it meant I would have had to fund-raise for volleyball and women’s water polo [which would have helped the school meet gender-equity requirements].”

Price said he would need to raise about $20,000--for travel, officials, equipment--to operate the men’s volleyball program for one more season. He said he could do it--”The money is out there”--but he also said spending a year as a lame-duck coach wasn’t necessarily his best career move.

“It puts me in a bad spot,” Price said. “If my players come to me and say, ‘Why don’t you do this? We can raise the money,’ either I [hurt] them by not helping them or I [hurt] myself by helping them.”

Batesole, who has a guaranteed contract for two more years, said it wasn’t reasonable to expect the team to raise $75,000 for one token season.

He added that most of his players are already well on their way to finding new schools, which would make it difficult to revive the program at such a late date.

“I don’t know how we could compete at a high enough level without the guys we’ve already lost,” he said.