Absence of Discussions Before Cuts Irks Titan Coaches

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Jan. 29, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

FULLERTON — When informed by a reporter Tuesday morning that the women’s volleyball and men’s gymnastics programs were being dropped at Cal State Fullerton, Titan assistant volleyball coach Marlon Sano refused to believe the news.

“I’d be very surprised if it was true,” Sano said. “I can’t believe (Fullerton Athletic Director) Bill Shumard wouldn’t consult with us first before making such a decision. He’s not the type of AD to do that.”

He was Tuesday. An hour later, Sano had driven to the office and received the news from Shumard himself. Titan volleyball was history, and men’s gymnastics would be after this season.

There was no advance warning, no indication of impending doom. Fullerton coaches had a regular staff meeting Monday and there was no mention of cutbacks.

It was a stark contrast to the situation in January, 1991, when budget cuts that threatened the Titan football program sparked a week-long debate among administrators, faculty members and boosters over whether to keep the sport.

There was no public outcry to save volleyball and men’s gymnastics as there was with football, because there was no public knowledge that they were in trouble.

This decision was made behind closed doors, with no input from those who were most affected. And that, almost as much as the decision itself, was what disappointed volleyball Coach Jim Huffman and men’s gymnastics Coach David Stow.

“What’s frustrating was the decision was made without contacting me, and no administrators have even come to one of my practices,” Stow said. “It seems like they never looked outside the conference room. They looked at the future of the department, but not the future of the sports.”

Huffman said he would have liked to have had an opportunity to raise additional funds or to compete with a reduced budget.

“I thought they’d at least give me the option of becoming a lower-tiered sport--cut the budget, eliminate my assistant, no scholarship money and I’d have to raise the rest,” he said. “I would have liked to have had the opportunity to say, ‘No way, you can’t do that,’ especially with the team being as good as I thought they’d be (next year). I would have liked to have tried it for one more year.”

Shumard, though, felt this was the only way to handle the situation, and for this he has been criticized and praised. He wasn’t athletic director during the football crisis, but he learned a lot from it.

“Any time you begin to raise fear in a program that it might be dropped, you put a certain cloud of doubt over the program,” Shumard said. “I can understand the coaches’ feelings, but if you start talking about something like this, go through the process and don’t do anything, it’s frustrating. There’s no easy way to do this.”

As much as women’s gymnastics Coach Lynn Rogers sympathized with Stow and Huffman, he admired Shumard for making a decision and sticking with it.

“If anything, I have more respect for (Shumard) to make a hard decision and go with it,” Rogers said. “That’s part of his job as a leader, to make tough decisions.”

The timing of the decision will make it tough for Huffman to find another job. There were eight Division I coaching openings a month ago, but only two now, at Utah State and Arizona.

Sano is one of four finalists for the Utah State job and is interviewing today, but he might have some unexpected competition--his old boss.

“I’m going to scramble,” Huffman said. “In 30 days, I don’t pay rent.”