Marmonte Ponders Alternatives in Wake of Nightmarish Schedule

The Marmonte League’s basketball coaches are again at odds with league administrators over scheduling problems that began when Agoura High joined the league before the 1990-91 school year.

As the league’s eighth school, Agoura unwittingly fueled a simmering controversy when the coaches rejected an administrative proposal to begin league play in December. Coaches cited, in part, conflicts with December tournaments and a two-week winter vacation layoff.

Thus, athletic directors are faced with the burden of squeezing 14 league contests between early January and Feb. 15, the Southern Section’s deadline for league play. Before Agoura’s arrival, each team had a bye date.

Last season, administrators scheduled two Saturdays in which the boys’ and girls’ freshman, sophomore and varsity teams from one school met another school in one gymnasium for a day jam-packed with basketball. Super Saturday, which was met with hostility by many of the league’s coaches, created several logistic difficulties and was axed this season.

Boys’ coaches--whose teams were forced to play back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday--had complained loudest. “Super Saturday seemed like a good idea,” Agoura Athletic Director John Crow said. “But it was a nightmare.”

This season, the athletic directors scheduled two weeks in which teams play games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The second three-game week coincides with final exams.

“There’s no easy solution,” Crow said. “There just are too many teams and not enough days. The coaches don’t want to play before the winter vacation and we’re left trying to hammer all the games down to X number of days. It just doesn’t squeeze.”

Simi Valley Coach Dean Bradshaw, who opposed Super Saturday, is among several coaches displeased with the current format. Simi Valley (10-3) has perhaps the toughest weekly schedule; the Pioneers play league title contenders Agoura and Thousand Oaks, then finish the week with cross-town rival Royal.

Athletic directors have proposed yet another format for next season, and it will be presented in a meeting with other administrators Wednesday. Under the new proposal, teams will open the league season with consecutive three-game weeks. “I know (Agoura Coach) Kevin Pasky is not real happy, but we’re trying to do our best to appease parents, coaches and kids,” Crow said. “I don’t think the coaches have made a real clear-cut decision on what they want. They just want us to work it out.”

One alternative is to follow the lead of the eight-team Channel League, which opened its season Friday while the school was still on winter break. Although lower attendance is a risk, the idea appeals to some Marmonte coaches.

“I like what the Channel League does,” Bradshaw said. “But those games require administrators and . . . I don’t think a lot of them are willing to cut their vacation short.”