Get With Program, Van Nuys

By Paige A. Leech

Dec. 8, 1996 12 AM PT

Van Nuys High, have you got problems.

The girls’ volleyball team used an ineligible player all season, was forced out of the playoffs and banned from postseason play next year. Their assistant coached simultaneously at Cal State Northridge and the Matadors face possible NCAA sanctions because of it.

The boys’ soccer team practiced illegally before the season and the girls’ soccer team held an illegal scrimmage. The football program already was serving a year’s probation for illegal practices.

Hey, Van Nuys officials, what is going on there? You and Dorsey are the only City high schools with its entire athletic department on probation.

Who is being held accountable?

“That’s an internal matter that I won’t discuss with any newspaper,” said Russ Thompson, principal at Van Nuys. “It’s not for the public to know.”

Silly me. I thought Van Nuys High was a public institution used by the public and paid for by the public. I guess I shouldn’t assume parents have a right to know how and why their children are being made to suffer for something an authorized adult did or didn’t do.

There has been plenty of finger pointing in the last couple of weeks, but not by Thompson. Well, not publicly anyway.

But that doesn’t mean Thompson doesn’t have a master plan to clean up the mess. During stints as assistant principal at Westchester, Locke and Roosevelt highs, Thompson has earned a reputation as Mr. Fix-It and is said to have an “excellent history” of cleaning up such messes, according to City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege.

On Friday, Thompson, who took over at Van Nuys in July, and Jack Molina, assistant principal in charge of athletics, met with the athletic staff. It wasn’t to celebrate the football team’s surprising playoff run.

Thompson assigned required reading of City Rules and Regulations (the “Orange Book”) for the weekend to every coach and athletic administrator. They are required to read Sections 1-6, the section about the sport applicable to them and the appendix. On Monday, each will have to sign an affidavit that they read the approximate 60 pages.

Each coach also was instructed to have all paperwork on the eligibility of their athletes on Molina’s desk Monday morning.

In addition, each coach will spend one full practice session on any day during the week of Dec. 16-20 discussing and teaching rules and regulations of their sport to their players.

“We want to make sure we don’t have any problems happen like this ever again,” Thompson said.

“We’ve not been following CIF guidelines and it caught up to us. It never should have happened.”

So, why did it happen? It depends on who you believe.

Two assistant coaches, Tuong Nguyen in volleyball and Raul Paredes in boys’ soccer, lost their jobs this week.

Dave Bessler, girls’ volleyball coach, still is blaming Athletic Director Steve Kalan for giving him incorrect information on the transfer of Sharon Foster, who left Village Christian and moved in with her aunt in Van Nuys.

Kalan investigated Foster’s eligibility through computer records and deemed her transfer legal. It wasn’t and top-seeded Van Nuys was booted from the City 4-A playoffs after a first-round victory.

Apparently, Bessler has support of the administration.

“I’m 150% behind Dave Bessler,” Molina said. “He did not knowingly violate the rules. I think his ethics are very high. . . . He’s simply misunderstood.”

Boys’ soccer Coach Vincent Recalde claims he had Kalan’s authorization to practice after school at a nearby park before the season, which is a violation.

Workouts are limited to a physical education class in the off-season. Kalan denies he gave Recalde the go-ahead and said, “I have been on the guy’s case for a month. I did not say it was OK.”

Still, Kalan, Van Nuys athletic director since 1992, is assuming some responsibility.

“I’m the athletic director,” he said. “I have to take the heat.”

How hot will it get for Kalan? Thompson isn’t talking.

The temperature was in the low 50s but Dante Clay was hot wherever he played Friday night.

Clay, a senior for the North Hollywood High football team, ran for 234 yards and four touchdowns in 30 carries against Wilson in the City 3-A semifinals.

Clay broke up three passes in the end zone and knocked out Wilson tailback Jarod Smith with a third-quarter hit that was heard from the top of the bleachers.

Wilson was OK, but did not return to the game.

Clay was not OK: North Hollywood lost to Wilson on a last-minute score, 36-34.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Clay said through tears. “I don’t know what to say.”

Correspondent Mike Bresnahan contributed to this story.