Mendocino College to weigh dropping football

Mendocino College President Arturo Reyes confirmed Tuesday he has initiated a procedure to assess the vitality of his school’s football program - a process that could culminate in the end of the team.

“I think there’s a chance there will be no Mendocino JC football this fall,” Reyes said. “At this point I’d say it’s probably a 50-50 chance.”

Mendocino has produced NFL players like Ronnie Cruz with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2005-06 and prospects like Jamar King, currently at the University of Alabama. But in recent years, the program has been beset by controversy. In an open letter submitted to the Ukiah Daily Journal, Reyes noted that students who play football at the school are succeeding at a lower rate, and acquiring degrees less frequently, than the general population of Mendocino College students.

Reyes also asserted the program is not profitable. He said in his letter, which he shared with The Press Democrat, that total football revenue for the 2015-16 school year, including all tuition, fundraising and gate attendance at Eagles home games, was $256,000. Expenditures, including cost of instruction, coaches’ salaries, transportation, paid officials and meal money to students, was $275,305, a net loss of nearly $20,000.

“While this may seem like a significant amount, it would be well worth the cost incurred if we were able to see students achieving consistent academic success,” Reyes wrote.

The most public rebuke came last year, when the Daily Journal reported that as many as 30 football players were packed into one house on Hortense Street near downtown Ukiah. Conditions at the house were substandard, and neighbors complained about noise and trash at the residence.

A subsequent Press Democrat story highlighted the difficulties that players, most from out of state, faced securing decent housing.

“After considering substantial data, the housing challenges, below average academic success, the disproportionately high use of student loans among football players, and (sadly) their dubious reputation as tenants, the prospects for the program are not promising,” Reyes wrote.

According to the president, he has been concerned with the football program since he arrived in 2013. Reyes said his office shared information and suggestions with the athletic department two years ago, at which time the school hired a new coach, Frank Espy, and laid out specific expectations. A more recent assessment showed that, in many ways, the situation had not improved.

Espy took umbrage with that characterization.

“When you take over a program that is not in a good spot, it takes time to be able to improve those things,” he said. “Now, if you want to talk about reviewing how Frank Espy has done, any smart business person would say this program is heading in the right direction. Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not. But we’re heading in the right direction to be successful. It’s hurtful when a story comes out saying the program is not successful.”

Espy said he had half-expected Reyes’ action for months. But the coach seemed wounded to learn of the president’s recommendation in the media, rather than from a personal visit.

To the coach, it was typical of campus communication at Mendocino.

“If you’re dying, and I see you dying for the last three years, shouldn’t I say something instead of watching?” Espy said. “Shouldn’t I say, ‘Hey, you’re dying?’?”

Despite the turmoil, the Eagles finished 6-4 last year, including a 4-2 mark in the Pacific 7 Conference. It was a major turnaround from the previous two seasons, in which their record was a combined 2-18 overall, and 1-11 in conference play.

Even those who have been critical of Espy and the Mendocino football program weren’t exactly applauding Reyes for his action.

“What worries me is that the college has been aware of it for a long time, sat in silence, did not respond to any public input and took actions without consulting anybody outside of the college upper-echelon hierarchy. And I don’t think that’s right,” said Barry Vogel, a Ukiah attorney who emerged as an advocate for student-athletes after they were evicted from the house on Hortense Street.

Larry McLeitch, Mendocino College’s first football coach in the 1970s and later a member of the institution’s board of trustees, questioned Reyes’ profit-and-loss analysis. He suspects the program makes money, which is why the college turned a blind eye to its flaws for so long.

Asked whether he thinks Mendocino football can be saved with additional oversight, McLeitch said: “I don’t think it’s possible with the present administration. You need someone who cares about students.”

The matter will now wend its way through the Mendocino College bureaucracy.

At Reyes’ urging, the school’s Program Advisory Team produced a report recommending discontinuance of the football program. That report will be submitted to the Educational Action Plan committee in the next few days. The EAP will then make a proposal to the collegewide Planning and Budgeting Committee, which in turn will recommend a direction to Reyes.

The timeline is unclear, as both the EAP and the PBC could choose to solicit input and data from a variety of sources.

Meanwhile, the Eagles football team goes about its preparations under a cloud of uncertainty.

When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Espy was about 15 minutes away from a weight-training class for his football players. Spring ball is supposed to start in April. Training camp is scheduled for July.

“But there’s no way we can put a football team together,” Espy said. “If you don’t know if you’re going to have a team, there’s no way you’re gonna call somebody to say, hey, come play football for Mendocino College.”

Reyes has promised that should the football team be disbanded, Mendocino will help players gain transfer to other schools if they request it. Some argue that isn’t enough.

“The men who left in the debacle of the housing problem they had last fall, many of them left with debt,” Vogel said. “I think the college should work with them to cancel that debt. Because I think the college is responsible for getting them here under false pretenses.”

The college is hosting a study session today to discuss the student housing crisis, at 2 p.m. in the College Board Room. The public is invited.