Prep coaches assail budget proposal

Spencer Patterson

Friday, May 11, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

Reaction was swift Thursday as word of Southern Nevada's proposed move to a new Class 5A spread throughout town. And for many area coaches, the idea of deciding a state champion without involving Nevada's northern half did not sit well.

"It's absolutely ludicrous," Silverado softball coach Chuck Pope said. "Nevada already has a watered down situation in terms of competition, and to water it down even further and say Southern Nevada's champion would be the state champion makes no sense to me."

Agreed Western boys basketball coach Tony Hopkins, "There needs to be some finality to the season, and my sentiment is that if we do this we wouldn't have a true state champion."

On Wednesday, Clark County athletic director Larry McKay confirmed that his proposal, part of an attempt to cut a mandated 10-12 percent from the District's $7.6 million athletic budget, has been added to the agenda for next month's Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Board of Control meeting.

The new configuration would virtually eliminate travel and hotel expenses for state championship events, with Northern Nevada's large schools deciding their own Class 4A state title in each sport.

"I met with (Southern Nevada's) athletic administrators Tuesday, and I explained where we are and what type of choices we have," McKay said. "Knowing the severity of the budget consequences, I'd say most of them supported those changes."

McKay has also proposed a hike in event ticket prices -- Clark County's first such increase since 1994 -- and has suggested that 100 percent of the revenue from those tickets go directly to the District. Currently, host schools keep 50 percent of the gate from their events.

Other possibilities include the elimination of middle school boys and girls basketball -- Clark County's only middle school sports -- as well as reductions in freshman programs.

"Obviously, I'd prefer to leave things the way they are, but that's not an option," McKay said, adding that he would prefer to avoid a controversial pay-to-play scenario that would have students paying to participate in athletic and other extra-curricular activities.

"I'd like not to eliminate the opportunity for kids to participate," he said.

For most area coaches, however, Thursday's hot topic was the potential elimination of Nevada's traditional north-south rivalries.

"It's very special to win a state title when you have to go through your own league, as well as the best from the north," said Mojave football coach Mike Gutwoski, who coached Clark to the 1993 football championship. "It's big to win the southern title, but to win that state championship is something much bigger."

Still, Gutowski said he would rather see the elimination of a state-wide year-end tournament than a move to pay-to-play.

"Breaking a tradition is hard, and I'm sure some people will oppose it, but from my perspective either we do this or we have pay-to-play," Gutowski said. "If you ask kids to pay to play, it really hurts schools where kids don't have the money they do at some other schools."

Pope, on the other hand, said he saw pay-to-play work as a coach in Colorado, and would not be opposed to such a solution, so long as the District made provisions for financially-strapped students.

"Obviously, I'm not privy to the details of the athletic budget, but eliminating the state tournament would take the thrill out of coaching," Pope said. "Our kids already have enough trouble getting seen (by college scouts) as it is. For us not to have a state tournament where we have contact with the north will make it even harder for them to get seen."

Pete Savage, coach of Reno High's baseball team, said many northern coaches are also against the idea of splitting from their southern counterparts, particularly in a state with only 33 schools currently in Class 4A.

"It was a shock to a lot of people up here when they heard about it today," Savage said. "Nevada is a small enough state that it should have a state tournament. It's not like California or Florida with 6,000 schools.

"The state tournament is a tradition I think should be saved for the sake of the athletes."