Rule Puts Burden on Prep Coaches

ANAHEIM — Word of the NCAA’s vote to toughen eligibility requirements for student-athletes had reached Marion Ancich, and the Tustin High School football coach could feel the added weight on his shoulders.

Monitoring aspiring college athletes under the NCAA’s Proposition 48, which requires high school students to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average in 11 “core” courses and score a 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or 17 on the American College Test (ACT) to play sports as college freshmen, had created enough extra work for Ancich during the past six years.

But Wednesday the NCAA increased the GPA requirement from a C to a C+ (2.5) and the core-course requirement to 13, meaning Ancich and his peers in the high school coaching profession will have even more academic responsibilities.

“When I first got into coaching, all I did was coach football and make sure guys went to class,” said Ancich, who coached for 20 years at St. Paul High in Santa Fe Springs and the past eight at Tustin.

“Now, you’ve got to work with guys, get them in the right classes and work with academic things you took for granted before. You’re a combination coach, teacher, counselor, administrator, and you’re getting paid the same. And you still have people yelling at you from the bleachers.”

University presidents, on a mission to emphasize academics, made their point loud and clear at Wednesday’s NCAA Convention. The proposal raising the grade-point average requirement was passed by a 249-72 vote and the proposal to increase the minimum number of required core--college-preparatory--classes was passed, 312-6.

The freshman eligibility rules won’t become effective until the 1995-96 academic year, but they are already sparking debate at the high school level, where they will be felt the most.

“The new requirements will put a tremendous burden on high school coaches and counselors,” said Mike Milner, El Toro’s first-year football coach who spent 12 seasons at Fountain Valley.

“Ever since the 2.0 rule was introduced, coaches and counselors have had to track a kid’s progress beginning with his freshman year. Part of my job as coach is making sure a kid is taking the right courses. So many schools have cut back or eliminated counselors that it’s now a coach’s job to make sure a kid is on the right track.”

Milner also believes the stiffer academic requirements will likely derail some student-athletes with college potential.

“It will prohibit some kids from getting a college education,” he said. “There are plenty of kids who flounder in high school and later prosper in a college environment. Now, you’re limiting kids who have the necessary tools to get an education. They won’t get a chance to prove they belong.”

Added Tim Devaney, football coach at Sunny Hills High: “The thing you’re going to lose is that borderline kid. You probably know as many kids as I do who weren’t very productive in high school, but once they went on to college, they did fine.”

Milner cited former Fountain Valley receiver Ken Margerum, a two-time All-American wide receiver at Stanford and a seven-year pro with the Chicago Bears, as an example.

“Kenny cruised in high school and then ended up graduating from Stanford and playing in the NFL,” Milner said. “He made some sound investments and hasn’t worked a day in his life.”

Others reacted more favorably to the NCAA rules.

“It’s a good move,” said La Habra High Principal Tom Triggs. “You’re seeing stiffer and stiffer requirements with an emphasis being placed on being well-educated. If you look at the vote, you’ll see there’s a message from our college presidents, and that’s to put the emphasis on the ‘student’ in student-athlete.”

Greg Coombs, basketball coach and academic coordinator at Century High, said the new requirements will stimulate athletes to work harder in class.

“I don’t think the new requirements will affect what we do now as coaches,” Coombs said. “The majority of the kids will do whatever it takes to meet the requirements.”

And then some.

Garden Grove High School football player Adrian Ioja said the increased grade-point average requirement will encourage more students to take easier classes to keep their average above a 2.5.

“A lot of kids are doing that now,” said Ioja, a tight end who has a 3.1 GPA and is being recruited by several West Coast colleges. “They’ll just take easy classes (for electives) instead of a harder course that might help them in college. They’ll be shooting for the average.”

Increasing the number of core courses won’t solve the problem, Ioja said, because student-athletes will still take easy courses as electives.

“You need most of the core courses just to graduate from high school anyway,” he said. “The (new) GPA requirement is the main thing.”

Jason Long, a free safety at Esperanza High, said the increase in the grade-point average requirement puts more pressure on the student-athletes to succeed.

“It’ll be hard because a lot of the football players have a hard time carrying a 2.5,” said Long, who is being recruited by several Division I schools. “It’s already hard because you have to practice, then go home and study. If you’re just a student, you have more time free to study.”

Long said the increased academic standards, if they took effect today, would jeopardize his eligibility. But he said the new standards were fair.

“I think it will have a big effect,” he said. “Some of the better players who don’t meet the new requirements will have to settle for a junior college.”

As was the case after Proposition 48 was adopted in 1983, community college athletic programs figure to benefit the most from the new academic requirements. Many nonqualifiers under Proposition 48, who are good enough athletically to play at Division I schools, attend two-year colleges and then transfer to four-year schools.

“I would think a lot of community college coaches will be licking their chops,” said Hank Ives, editor of the J.C. Grid-Wire newsletter and a 32-year follower of community college football. “Let’s face it, there are a lot of high school kids who aren’t ready for college. J.C. football improved when Prop. 48 went into effect, and it will go up another notch now.”

Times staff writers Tom Hamilton and Mike Reilley contributed to this story.

NCAA TOUGHENS RULE: The NCAA voted to adopt more stringent eligibility requirements. A1