Dean Juipe: Quarrel pits Legion coach against LVHS

Monday, April 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

IT'S EASY to see who's getting the short end of the deal in this dispute among adults. It's the kids, of course.

Imagine that. Kids -- in this case, high-school age baseball players -- suffering because adults are acting childish.

It's an old saga. And it's currently being replayed for the umpteenth time right here in Las Vegas. In this instance, the primary combatants are the head baseball coach at Las Vegas High School, Steve Gahn, and the school's American Legion Baseball head coach, Izzy Marion.

Marion has the Legion franchise for Las Vegas High, just as he did last year. Prior to that, his son Gino had the team for eight years.

Conceptually, the Legion program picks up where the high-school program leaves off. The players slide from the spring high-school league into the summer Legion league, sticking together for every reason from cohesiveness to practicality.

But last year, Gahn didn't want his players to spend the summer with Marion and, instead, directed them to one of the three Connie Mack teams in town. Marion, reduced to 11 players in 1996, nonetheless took his team to the state playoffs.

A year later, little has changed. Marion wants the players off the Wildcats' high-school team for his team this summer and Gahn doesn't want him to have them.

"It's pretty clear the people at Las Vegas High don't want me coaching the team," Marion said. "They hate me, for some reason I don't know."

Unless there's a solution, Marion will once again scrounge to find enough players to field a team and the Las Vegas High players -- underclassmen, specifically -- will be directed into a Connie Mack program that lacks serious competition.

"I don't see any compromise coming," Gahn said. "This has been a real mess from day one. Personally, I'm getting tired of it.

"Our (players') parents don't want him coaching their kids. It's all a matter of discipline. He'll take the (Legion) team on trips and there's been a lack of discipline.

"Then we get the kids back and we've got to rediscipline them. It's a bad situation."

Gahn did not cite any specific incidents and referred additional inquiries to Las Vegas High principal Barry Gunderson. Gunderson, however, failed to return phone messages left for him both Thursday and Friday.

Marion, who said he used $1,200 of his own money to help finance his Legion team's expenses last year, would like Gahn's cooperation but apparently isn't going to get it.

"I'm not trying to cause a problem," Marion said. "I'm just looking for fairness. I'm not the best coach in the world, but I'm not the worst coach either.

"And I take care of my kids. When it comes to kids, I'll do anything for them."

There are other twists in the plot.

For starters, apparently it was Gunderson's decision to prevent Marion's 1996 Legion team from using the field at Las Vegas High for practice, and that embargo may still be in effect. "Can you believe that?" Marion said. "We can't even practice on what should be our home field."

Also, Gahn said Marion (and his son) confronted him recently at Cimarron Memorial High School prior to a high-school game there.

"They made some comments," Gahn said. "They said things like, 'We're going to get you.' I submitted a report to the school police."

Gahn would like to have the Legion team coached by his high-school assistant, Jesse Medelin. But Legion Baseball's position is that Marion is the coach; he said if a compromise became available, he would let Medelin serve as an assistant coach for his Legion team.

"Izzy's been there and done a great job," said Tom Appleyard, who coaches the city's top Legion program, which gets its players from Durango High. "There's no reason for this. He's proven himself."

Added longtime Legion official and observer Edi Gomez, "Izzy's kids always like playing for him. This stuff with the people from Las Vegas High just isn't right."

Gino Marion, who is taking over Valley High's Legion team this year, said "Look at the bigger picture. The Las Vegas (High) coaches don't do anything for their players, while we've been able to get 80 percent of them either into colleges or at least to where they get looked at by colleges."

If the Legion season were to start today, Izzy Marion said he thought he could come up with "nine to 12 players." He also said he has signed affidavits from "nine players from my team last year who were told by the Las Vegas High coaches not to play for me."

A high-school coach has a certain hold on players who will be returning to play for him the following season. It's understood the coach can indirectly punish a player who goes against the coach's wishes even during the off-season, either by not playing him or by denying him a spot on the team the next spring.

When asked what he's telling his current players about Legion baseball, Gahn said "I told them it's their choice."

But, more pointedly, when asked if an underclassman was inclined to go against his wishes and play for Marion this summer, Gahn's response was limited but spoke volumes.

"I told them it wouldn't be a wise decision," he said.