Is this the end of the SCISL?

Cooperative, International withdraw from League

    Cooperative and International announced at a meeting of athletic directors last Friday that they were withdrawing from the Santa Cruz Interscholastic Sports League, effectively terminating the existence of the League, which began in 2004.

    “As of now there is no League,” said Alvaro Ludueña, the athletic director of Cooperative who had been the athletic director of the now defunct League. “There will be no soccer and volleyball seasons,” he said. The meeting had ostensibly been called to prepare for the soccer and volleyball seasons, which normally would have begun in August.

     Officials at Cambridge confirmed the defections, but Juan Carlos Coronel, the assistant manager of the school, said Cambridge was determined to continue the League with added schools, despite the departure of International and Cooperative. 


  Keith Wilcke, the athletic director at Christian Learning, reportedly did not take a position at the meeting, saying he lacked authority to do so and would have to bring the matter to his school's board. He reported Wednesday that the board had decided not to continue in the SCISL, and that he had no further details about the school's plans. 

      Both Ludueña and International athletic director Eli Vilar said that the main reason for deciding to withdraw involved problems with Cambridge and its long-time basketball coach Victor Coronado during the just-completed basketball season, but neither was specific, and Ludueña acknowledged that there had not been formal complaints against Coronado or Cambridge.

     “There was nothing we could prove,” Vilar said in a phone interview, “and I will not be specific, but we were not happy with the way things were being handled at Cambridge.” She also said that “there were too many irregularities. They seemed to have a different point of view . . . . they were more focused on results than other values.”

      Ludueña said in an interview said Coronado had used profanity and attacked Ludueña  personally and Cooperative players during the League championships last month. Coronado in past years has been criticized for a loud and combative manner, but many thought he had been unchararacteristically subdued this past season. Luduena and Vilar disagreed. 

       Cambridge’s boys varsity and junior varsity teams won the championships in their divisions, and each of those teams defeated International during the season by huge margins, scoring more than 100 points. However, Vilar insisted that the defeats were “not at all” related to International’s decision to withdraw from the League.

      The Cooperative girls team had scored over 100 points in defeating International this season as well. In that case Ludueña had apologized for his team’s running up the score. Cambridge did not apolog¡ze, but did take steps to try to slow the pace of scoring in the varsity game, which it won 113 to 4. Coronado instructed his players that in the fourth quarter they were to only take shots from outside the three-point line.

      While he was not the subject of any specific charges made by Ludueña and Vilar, there were also several references made during the meeting to Cambridge’s leading player, Luis Mercado, a nearly seven-foot tall ninth-grader who was Cambridge’s leading scorer and rebounder during the year.

       Mention was also made of a Cambridge soccer player who graduated several years ago, Junior Sanchez, and veiled references to possible improprieties in the enrollment of both players, which were vigorously denied by  Coronel, who attended the Friday meeting together with Cambridge athletic director Eduardo ¨Presi” de la Riva.

      Coronel said he attended the meeting because de la Riva had heard a rumor that Cooperative would seek to drop basketball from the League program,and wanted Coronel on hand to help him with translation.

      Cooperative’s girls team was undefeated for the third straight year this past season , but Cooperative had trouble fielding a boys team and forfeited two games, the most games forfeited by a varsity team in one season in League history. Cooperative´s boys varsity finished last in the regular season, and was third in the post-season playoff. 

       International’s decision to withdraw from the League was a surprise to most observers, though it was no secret that there was bad blood between Cambridge and International all season, going back to the first meeting between the two teams when International coach Reyes Gil sought to have Cambridge’s best female player disqualified because her shorts didn’t have stripes on them.

       Coronado responded that two of the Griffin players didn’t have stripes on their shorts either, and since without them International had fewer than five players, he demanded that the game be forfeited to Cambridge. The officials initially agreed, and announced a forfeit, but after a half-hour or argument the schools agreed to play the game, which Cambridge won.

      In the next encounter between the two teams Coronado complained that two International girl players had on the same number, and that the International uniforms used the numbers 1, 2, and 3, which are supposedly banned because referees use those numbers in their hand signals to indicate the number of foul shots a player gets, after indicating which player drew the foul.  Having players with those numbers can cause confusion in the communication between the referees and scorer. Play continued, but only after a long argument.

       When the two girls teams met in the playoffs there was another long argument, this time over what ball to use.  

      The meeting last Friday reached its most heated moment when Vilar offered the observation that the basic problem with the League was the differing philosophies between the teams, saying that some of the schools were “gringo” schools, with high standards, while others were at a lower “Latino” level, which she indicated with a hand gesture.

       Coronel, incensed by this apparent racist reference, demanded an explanation as to which schools were “gringo” schools and which “Latino,” and what, exactly, she meant by that. Accounts differ as to what, if anything, Vilar said at that point, and she declined to comment on the references afterwards, saying only that Coronel had “twisted” her words.   

      Ludueña said at the meeting that his school intends to concentrate on the Friendship Games against other Bolivian “American Schools,” and also intended to play games against the American School in Asuncion.

      It wasn’t known what plans the other schools will make to continue sports activities. Cambridge will announce the departure of Cooperative and International from the League at an assembly Tuesday morning, and also its intention to continue the League in its current form with new teams.

       Vilar said her school had no specific plan, but did intend to continue to play sports. Christian Learning’s plans were also unknown as of Monday.   

       The League was started at the impetus of Cooperative athletic director Todd Parham in August of 2004,  The original members of the League were Cooperative, International, Christian Learning, and Eagle’s School. Cambridge joined the following January at the same time that Eagle’s dropped out.

       Cooperative wanted to start a League in Santa Cruz in part to replace the Friendship Games, which had been terminated because the American School in La Paz had stopped participating in them after joining an international league of American schools.

       The La Paz school dropped out of that league later when the American Embassy in La Paz  sent home many of its personnel after the expulsion of the American ambassador, sharply decreasing enrollment at the school. However, the Games did not immediately resume because of security concerns in the country.

      They did start up again three years ago, and have been played twice in the last three years, with Cooperative winning all of the championship trophies awarded in both competitions.

        Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz League had continued with four teams, despite several attempts to get other schools to join. Many schools showed initial interest in joining until they became aware of the costs in money and effort that were involved.

       Some potential members may also have been intimidated by the level of play in the League, which has steadily improved over the years.

        Although individual schools in the League have dominated play in a given sport over many years – Cooperative, for example, has won every girls soccer championship – nonetheless there has been an overall parity. Every school has won several championships in one or more of the four sports played – basketball, soccer, volleyball, and track and field.

        Somewhat ironically, Cooperative and International are withdrawing just before the season in which the sports they have dominated are played – soccer and volleyball.   

        Do you have any comments or opinions on these recent happenings? Email them to boldt27@gmail.com or mktrevor@gmail.com!