Lack of support leaves athletics department without full-timers

kinesiology department. He did not receive an interview any of those three times. Sabolic, like many of the other coaches, is a teacher at a different campus during the day. He teaches chemistry at El Camino Real High School, and drives over to Pierce for football practice in the afternoons.

MONICA VIGIL Reporter @monica_a_vigil

Sports coaches, on many college campuses, teach classes throughout the day and then transition to leading practice for their team. Pierce is not one of those colleges.

None of the 13 sports coaches at Pierce are hired as full-time instructors, despite the athletic department’s attempts to change that.

Athletic Director Bob Lofrano said he was the last person to be hired as a full-time coach in 1989. He was hired to coach baseball and teach physical education.

Lofrano said the problem with coaches not being full-time instructors is that they have to get a second, and sometimes third job off campus, and as a result are not accessible to the student athletes.

“What if there’s a problem,” Lofrano said. “What if [the athletes] need some guidance and their coach is selling real estate until 3 o’clock? It’s really a burden.”

Lofrano said he does not know why the coaches are overlooked when the kinesiology department has an opening for a full-time teacher, but he has been vocal about wanting this to change.

“I think it’s a burden on the whole campus because athletes are here all day long,” Lofrano said.

“They wait around for practice. It’s not like the regular student who comes in at 8 and leaves at 12 because he lives three miles away, goes home, eats lunch, goes to work. The athletes wait.”

Football coach Jason Sabolic wants to be a full-time instructor at Pierce. He has been an adjunct faculty member for the last 13 years, and said he has had three opportunities to be hired within the health and

“I think it’s a burden on the whole campus because athletes are here all day long. They wait around for practice. It’s not like the regular student who comes in at 8 and leaves at 12 because he lives three miles away, goes home, eats lunch, goes to work.

The athletes wait.”

-Bob Lofrano Athletic Director

“Football is a full-time job with this many kids,” Sabolic said. “They’re roaming around. That’s one of the major problems. There’s no oversight of those 120 kids [involved with the football team] and that’s a big group on campus.”

Chance Cole, a sophomore on the basketball team, said getting a hold of coach Charles White before or after practice isn’t a problem for him.

“We have his phone number, so I can call him during the day, but it’d be better if he was here,” Cole said.

According to Lofrano, the hiring committee on campus is aware of the athletic department’s desire to have at least one of their coaches hired as a full-time instructor.

Lofrano said the committee has, in the past, agreed to grant the department’s request, but never followed through with the decision.

“I’m not saying we don’t have support,” Lofrano said. “But we don’t have support in that area where coaches can be hired.”

According to the Los Angeles Valley College website, seven of their eight athletic coaches are also kinesiology instructors.

Lofrano said coaches also share some of the blame. In other schools, there are coaches who are hired and then stop coaching.

“That’s been a problem for years throughout any school district, throughout any school,” Lofrano said. “It’s a two-way street. You have to be honest about that.” mvigil.roundupnews@gmail.com jmanes.roundupnews@gmail.com

The Brahmas next game is at home in The Pit against Taft College on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m., followed by a trip to Oxnard College on Friday Oct. 7 at 2 p.m.

Briefs: Former Pierce quarterback drafted to CFL

The Canadian Football League has drafted former Brahma Nick Arbuckle. In 2014, Arbuckle graduated and moved on to Georgia State University.

Arbuckle was the Brahmas’ quarterback from 2012-14. He racked up 6,626 passing yards and 73 touchdowns. He also had 29 interceptions and 27 sacks.

He led the Pacific Conference in 2013 with 259.3 yards per game. His final season as a Brahma ended with a nearly 60 percent passing rate, 2,852 yards and 26 touchdowns.

At GSU, he had 51 touchdowns and 7,651 yards from 2014-15. In 2015, he had 471 passing yards in a single game against Texas State University. Arbuckle was an unsigned free agent who attended the Pittsburgh Steelers tryouts during the summer.

It ended with no contract being offered. At 6 feet and 225 pounds, Arbuckle was considered to be deficient in arm strength, athleticism, and height, even though last season at GSU he had 28 touchdowns, 4,368 passing yards and a .631 passing percentage.

The Calgary Stampeders, a team within the CFL, extended a contract for three years to Arbuckle. Prior to leaving GSU, Arbuckle served as volunteer assistant coach to head coach Trent Miles and the offensive staff for the 2016 season.

Let me pitch you something: Pierce should adopt outdoor sporting classes where adrenaline junkies, thrill seekers or students looking to step out of their comfort zone, can harness the rush of living on the edge. By outdoor sporting classes, I am not talking about competitive sports (although, they can be), I’m talking about sports where improvement is the only way to earn a W. Sports like: bicycling, surfi ng or mountain climbing. Pierce already has a horseback riding class, so why not expand?

College is a time and place for young adults to be set up on a path to discover passions that will last a lifetime. Because parental sheltering has signifi cantly decreased, students are willing to take more risks; an outdoor sports class would be prominent because it can develop hobbies that will stick with you for life.

According to losangelessurfinglessons.com, one private surfi ng lesson costs $125, while a group lesson, with random people of different age groups, cost $90. Whereas at Pierce, it’d only be $46 per unit for a full semester. You would also be establishing connections with other students who more likely have similar interests.

Pierce can buy beginner surfboards for $200 to $400 online or at sporting stores. According to a study done by the University of Maine, on average, it costs $3,876 annually to own one horse.

It’s time students can play a sport and take a class where the only way to fail is to not show up to a recreational course. But if you are a person looking to experience something fresh and exciting, then you can’t possibly take no L’s enrolling in these classes.

Let’s bring excitement back to Pierce.

mnodelman.roundupnews@gmail.com