Tough times continue for Rancho’s sports teams

Spencer Patterson

Tuesday, May 12, 1998 | 9:35 a.m.

It's that time of year again: time for the Las Vegas prep scene to come alive with the sights and sounds of the spring playoff drive.

You won't hear much rejoicing in the hallways or locker rooms of Rancho High School, though. The word "postseason" just doesn't have much meaning these days at Las Vegas' oldest high school.

There was a time not so long ago when Rancho was synonymous with athletic excellence. Between 1973 and 1988, the Rams not only dominated the local playoff scene, they captured 12 Nevada state team championships in seven sports.

Since the school's last title (football '88), however, it's been quite a different story at Rancho. While times have been tough throughout the 1990s, this year has seen an unprecedented dip in the Rams' overall results.

In fact, as the 1997-98 school year comes to a close, the Rams must face the harsh reality that in the 13 traditional team sports (football, boys and girls golf, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball), they failed to qualify for a single playoff berth.

"It's been a tough year around here," Rancho athletic administrator Len Czarnecki said.

Non-qualifiers

Of the 16 4A Las Vegas-area schools with varsity athletics, Rancho is one of only two not to qualify for the playoffs in the sports listed above. The other? Vo-Tech, a school with 1,000 fewer students which participates in only a handful of fall, winter and spring sports.

In the 14 varsity sports that track league standings (the 13 listed above plus wrestling), Rancho's 1997-98 overall record is 48-119-8 -- a winning percentage of just .287. To put that into perspective, the 1962 New York Mets, considered the worst major league baseball team in history, finished just a hair behind at 40-120 (.250).

In some cases, the decline at Rancho has been dramatic.

The Rams' baseball team finished the 1997 season with a 17-13 record and qualified for the zone playoffs. This spring, a Rancho program that once produced such notables as Mike Maddux and Marty Barrett went 2-20 on the baseball diamond.

The natural question is why. Why has a school with as much athletic tradition as Rancho's been reduced to a perennial cellar dweller? And why has the decline been so rapid in recent years?

Most of the answers to those questions are readily available for the administrators at the school. But while identifying the causes may be relatively easy, eliminating them may be nearly impossible for Rancho principal Ernie Jauregui and his staff.

Zoning changes

First and foremost, Rancho has been hit hard by the loss of many of its top athletes, a result of two events related to Las Vegas' unprecedented recent growth.

In 1991, Cheyenne High School opened in North Las Vegas, drawing many of its new students from Rancho and from the two primary middle schools which feed into Rancho -- J.D. Smith and Von Tobel.

Although other schools, like Eldorado and Las Vegas, were affected by the re-zoning, Czarnecki points to Cheyenne's creation as a critical event in Rancho's downward spiral.

"When they rezoned, half of the kids that used to go to Rancho went to Cheyenne, and Cheyenne became an athletic factor," Czarnecki said.

"Every time they zone us, we seem to lose more and more of our talent base," Jauregui agreed. "Also, our tradition was passed down from father to son, from brother to brother. That isn't happening anymore because our population is changing daily because of re-zoning."

Steve McCoy, Clark County School District superintendent for the area encompassing the Rancho zone, is quick to point out that re-zoning has affected all schools in the Las Vegas area at one time or another.

"Every time you open a new school, you re-zone," McCoy said. "That's just a fact of life we all have to adjust to. They still have 2,800 kids at Rancho."

The optional zone

Also in 1991, Green Valley High School opened in Henderson, and one year later the Clark County School District adopted a new "optional-zone program."

Designed to create diversity at Green Valley and reduce overcrowding at Rancho, the new program gave 75 minority students per grade in the Rancho zone the option to enroll at Green Valley, and 17 minority students per grade at Von Tobel and J.D. Smith the option to attend Henderson's Greenspun Middle School.

The ongoing program paved the way for such current Gator standouts as basketball players Cornell Williams and Allan Johnson to leave the Rancho zone for "Greener" pastures.

Rancho students and teachers still tell stories about Green Valley's 1994-95 boys basketball squad, which featured four starters who originally were zoned for Rancho.

"That optional-zone program killed Rancho High School," Jauregui said. "I understand the reason for it, but our top athletes and students ended up at other schools. That takes your talent out of your program, and we'll never regain the ground that we've lost."

Jauregui and Czarnecki, among others, contend that certain students were deliberately selected from among the annual list of applicants to attend Green Valley.

"Green Valley selected the best students and the best athletes and sent the rest back," Czarnecki said.

"It's supposed to be a lottery, but they ended up getting hand picked," said Joe Stein, the school's boys basketball coach this winter. "We've lost kids in every sport."

But Stephen Augspurger, district superintendent for the area encompassing Green Valley's zone, disputes those claims.

"We do it by computer lottery from my office," Augspurger said. "The school has nothing to do with the selections. I suppose if kids who had athletic potential applied for the option and got selected, it could impact Rancho athletics, but I don't know that that's a legitimate excuse. To me, I don't think it's a factor."

Regardless of how the selections were made or how re-zoning has affected Rancho, the simple truth is that the school can't reclaim the athletes it has lost.

And according to football coach Cary Mitchell, that's something students must learn to deal with if the Rams are to be competitive again.

"They talk about the kids who should be here and left on almost a daily basis," Mitchell said. "I try to tell them it's time to stop talking about it."

Waiting on facilities

For anyone driving past Rancho last fall, it wouldn't have been unusual to see a group of students carrying clothing and other personal items as they made their way to the school's athletic fields.

Lack of adequate locker space for physical education classes has been just one of many problems Rancho must deal with while it waits for its auxiliary gymnasium to be remodeled by the Clark County School District.

The project, which began in April 1997 and was scheduled to be completed last August, remains largely unfinished, leaving the Rams without their primary athletic training facility.

"We've lost some morale because of this," said Mitchell, whose football team has spent the year lifting weights in the cafeteria, rather than in the auxiliary gym's power-lifting room. "It's a big factor for the football team. Strength-wise we're behind the other schools."

The remodeling project, which is being funded by money allocated in the 1994 school bond, was on schedule before significant structural damage was discovered in the building's roof.

"When they tore the roof off, the metal deck was rusted out," said Kent Jamison, site manager for Parsons, Fleming and Taylor, the engineering company handling the project. "That started a chain reaction of problems. We had to go back to the architect to get new plans. The bids came in on May 6, the school board approved the project and they just handed it to the contractor."

In the meantime, Rancho's teams have been forced to deal with less-than-ideal conditions.

The cafeteria doubles not only as a weight room, but also as the school's main wrestling room. Much of the essential power-lifting equipment remains in the auxiliary gym, where it sits unused. And the primary gymnasium, which was built just five years ago, is aging quickly due to massive overuse.

"The whole thing is a huge mess," Czarnecki said.

"For 13 months, we haven't been able to use the auxiliary gymnasium, and I don't see it being done by next August when the school year begins."

But according to Fred Smith, contracts and construction manager for the district, the project is back on track and should be finished by August.

"By the time school starts up this fall, all the work should be done," Smith said.

Financial factors

Rancho's location in an older, low-income neighborhood also may hurt the school's chances of fielding competitive teams.

Many students in the Rancho zone work to help support their families, while others must stay home to look after younger siblings. That leaves little time for athletics and other after-school activities -- something reflected in low participation numbers for sports like football and golf.

"You can't expect every kid to make every practice if he has other responsibilities," Jauregui said. "It's a priority deal. Their priorities are family-oriented or job-oriented."

Financial issues also go a long way toward explaining the school's lack of success in sports that require athletes to spend their own money to attain a high level of achievement.

"It's a lower socio-economic area, and I'm sure that helps explain Rancho's weaknesses in sports that take money, like golf and tennis," Czarnecki said. "If you go to Green Valley, there's a booster club to help pay for those things."

On the bright side

Despite its recent athletic struggles, there is cause for optimism at Rancho.

A quick look at the school's girls soccer team can help any of the school's athletes, coaches or fans realize there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Just last season, the Rams were the laughingstock of the league, finishing dead last in the Sunrise Division with an 0-18 overall record. This year, the team placed fifth, missing out on a playoff berth on the season's final day.

The school's freshman class features a group of top-notch athletes, particularly in softball, baseball and wrestling. And while the varsity and junior varsity football teams failed to draw standard numbers, the freshman squad saw an unprecedented 60 boys try out.

"We need to establish our tradition now, especially at the freshman level," Jauregui said. "If we're going to be successful, we need to get the younger kids ready to go."

The school recently organized a new booster club, which met for the first time last week. And when the auxiliary gymnasium project is complete, Rancho will be home to one of the top athletic building tandems in town.

Lastly, the school's new medical and aerospace magnet programs may finally be a way for Rancho to reverse its recent trend of losing athletes to other schools in Las Vegas.

"If they allow us to bring an athlete in and put them in the magnet program, that will be a very positive thing," Czarnecki said.

But above all else, Jauregui knows the key to his school's athletic resurrection is to re-establish the winning tradition it has lost over the years.

"I'm an ex-coach at Rancho and I understand the tradition," said Jauregui, who coached football, baseball and wrestling at the school during the 1970s. "I understand the tradition, but our kids don't.

"The only way we can win is to make the program attractive to them."

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