Sasvary Feels Constraints of 2-Sport Coach

Les Sasvary may have picked the wrong year for his soccer team to contend for a City Section title. Because City officials changed the start of the season to coincide with other winter sports, Sasvary finds himself in a predicament most coaches would envy.

“I just wish soccer hadn’t started so late,� the coach said. “This is the first year the league officials have started the season after the new year, and I don’t have time to properly prepare my gymnasts.�

Sasvary, boys’ soccer and gymnastics coach at Monroe High, has directed the soccer team to an 11-1-1 record and a first-place finish in the Valley Pac-8 Conference. Yet Sasvary believes he has had too much of a good thing.

“It’s a tough situation because we have a gymnastics meet March 9 and soccer won’t end until late February if we go to the finals,� he said.

If Monroe wins the City championship in soccer--the Vikings open the playoffs Tuesday as the favorite--and duplicate the feat in gymnastics--the Vikings have won 10 City Section gymnastics titles since 1969--Sasvary would be the first City coach to win back-to-back titles in different sports.

“It would be nice if we could win the two titles,� he said. “It’ll be good for the school, me and the athletes.�

Sasvary spawned the soccer program at Monroe in 1978 after having established a dominant gymnastics program for 10 seasons. Sasvary said that he was driven by the love of both sports and wanted to pass on his experience and discipline to athletes.

“I played soccer as a child in Europe and continued until my freshman year in college,� he said. “Then gymnastics took over.�

Rewards have been slower in coming for the soccer team, but this year’s team has the best record in school history and is seeded No. 1 entering the playoffs. Last season, the Vikings posted what was then their best record as they advanced to the semifinals.

“The team’s success is no surprise to me,� Sasvary said. “They’ve worked hard and earned every win.�

And as long as the soccer season is working out for the best, Monroe gymnasts must work out on their own. The gymnasts “practice in the P. E. classes and the athletes work on their own a little,� Sasvary said. “But it’s definitely a hindrance.�