OCC took a hit during sanctions episode
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Orange Coast College athletics celebrated a favorable appeal ruling last week that lifted a proposed ban on postseason competition for 2016-17 in all sports, except football. But several coaches said damage created during the 10-week period in which the sanctions loomed over 23 programs was real, though difficult to quantify.
Kevin Smith, the school’s acting athletic director who also coaches men’s and women’s soccer, said the biggest impact from sanctions imposed by the state governing body due to a handful of violations over a seven-year period, was in recruiting.
“I think players that had already expressed interest in coming to us were willing to wait to see what was going to happen [with the appeals process],” Smith said. “That being said, I think a lot of people who considered coming to us, definitely left the door open to go elsewhere. It’s definitely fair to say that two or three men’s and women’s [soccer] players made the decision that if there wasn’t an opportunity to play in the postseason, they would look elsewhere.
“The timing was horrible,” said Smith, who noted a new athletic director may be in place by June 1. “There is never a good time for having something like that hanging over you, because other schools can use that as a way to lure players away from us. I think, overall, we’ll rebound and as coaches, we feel justice has been done. But it hurt all of us.”
Several coaches said they likely lost prospective recruits before the sanctions were overturned, though most reported that the relatively small window of time between the announcement of sanctions and the resolution of the school’s appeal allowed them to avoid the loss of prospective returners.
“My players told me they were getting calls from friends in other programs letting them know that those other schools were not on probation, if they wanted to come join them after this season,” OCC baseball coach John Altobelli said. “But all my guys told me that whatever happened, they were coming back [next season].”
Even with a two-season ban on postseason play, OCC football coach Kevin Emerson said his program moves forward with very little damage.
“Football is a lot different than other sports,” Emerson said. “One extra bowl game in football doesn’t make a huge difference. A player has 10 games to earn a scholarship. No other games are needed.”
Emerson also said that his program has retained all of its freshmen from last season and that many of those players are already being coveted by four-year schools, including those in power conferences.
Emerson has also pointed out that his team can still compete for a conference championship.
Men’s and women’s track and field coach John Knox said that had the sanctions remained, he would have actually encouraged his athletes to transfer to programs that could provide opportunities to compete in the postseason.
“Some freshmen said, ‘Coach, I’ll redshirt next year,’” Knox said. “My philosophy at Orange Coast, especially with track athletes, is if they are healthy, I don’t like them to sit out. If they are healthy, I tell them to run, and I wasn’t going to change that. If this wasn’t the place to run, because they couldn’t go to state, then go someplace else and run.
“[The ruling lifting the postseason ban] has lifted a burden off of my freshmen athletes, because now they can come back to Orange Coast,” Knox said.
The postseason ban, all agree, would have disproportionately damaged sports that crown individual champions, such as track and field, swimming, tennis and golf.
OCC women’s tennis standout Clarisa Colling, the Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year, the state Freshman of the Year, and the state singles runner-up, told Coast Report, the school’s student newspaper, that had the sanctions been upheld, she would have competed at another school next season.
But even with team sports, the allure of competing for a state title would have been enough to prompt OCC freshmen to find another athletic home, or sit out next year, Smith said.
“Some feedback I got internally, especially on the men’s team, was that if they weren’t going to play for a state championship, [current freshmen] were probably going to sit out next year,” Smith said. “And it’s interesting, because we didn’t even make the playoffs last year. It just says a lot about what that [state championship] opportunity means to athletes.”
Smith said an inability to compete for a state title [a potential reality before the successful appeal], was used by rival schools to recruit negatively against OCC.
“I think there are very competitive people out there who will do what it takes to get the best athletes,” Smith said. “I’m speaking in general terms. I don’t know of any coaches that do it or would do it. But it happens, for sure. One parent of a men’s soccer player I was recruiting said ‘Why would [his son] want to go play for Orange Coast, if it can’t play for a state championship?’ To be honest, I think that seed was planted by another [school’s] coach who said the same thing.
“[Rival schools] are going to try to gain whatever advantage they can. I think it just happens; not necessarily head coaches, but assistant coaches.”
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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5
