El Camino School The Union

With one of many largest athletic departments of any two-year faculty in California, El Camino School is dwelling to almost 400 student-athletes competing in almost two dozen sports activities.

The division’s success hinges on funding which, partly, comes from the Related College students Group (ASO).

For the 2022-2023 faculty 12 months, the athletic division’s finances is $7.9 million, in line with information obtained by The Union from the El Camino Group School District Athletic Division.

ASO supplied $135,000 to the athletic division, in line with ASO president Jana Abulaban. Abulaban added the ASO determines the allocation of funding for athletics, together with different on-campus packages.

A portion of El Camino’s athletic finances is used to pay officers for video games and meets, together with athletic tools, uniforms and staffing — all of which have elevated in value. Jeffrey Miera, the Director of Athletics at El Camino School mentioned the rise in value to keep up the athletic program.

“Entry charges have gone up as a result of staffing is dearer,” Miera stated. “Officers’ charges go up periodically. All the bills that we now have go up.”

For instance, the finances allocates $120,000 for tools and uniforms. The finances additionally funds varied subdivisions throughout the total athletic division, together with males’s and ladies’s groups, the athletic division workplace, and the Well being Sciences and Athletics Division.

El Camino’s roster numbers had been in comparison with 4 different group schools within the state: Bakersfield School, Pasadena Metropolis School, Riverside Metropolis School, and Metropolis School of San Francisco.

In comparison with the opposite schools, El Camino enrolls 393 student-athletes competing in 22 sports activities, together with these competing in sports activities performed through the 2022 spring semester. Equally, at Riverside, the varsity has 19 sports activities with over 400 athletes. The varsity’s athletic finances is supplied by the varsity’s district.

The Union made makes an attempt to succeed in athletic administrators from Metropolis School of San Francisco, Pasadena Metropolis School, and Bakersfield School however didn’t obtain a response.

Payton Williams, Riverside’s athletic director, advised The Union there have been adjustments inside Riverside’s athletics program within the final 10 years, together with the addition of girls’s seaside volleyball, and a stunt workforce that’s derived from cheerleading.

Williams, who has been the athletic director since 2021, has made it a precedence to make sure student-athlete success – particularly within the classroom. The T.I.G.E.R.S. Program helps college students navigate the trials of educational life.

“We make certain if we see a necessity, we get it addressed, whether or not bodily, educational, or emotional,” Williams stated. Mentorship and steering are supplied by coaches, employees members, and counselors as properly.

El Camino has produced many athletes who went on play on the four-year degree, some professionally, and a few who’ve gone again to El Camino as a coach. Liz Hazell, the present head coach for the ladies’s volleyball workforce is a former pupil of El Camino and performed volleyball on the faculty.

“It’s robust being a student-athlete,” Hazell stated. “It’s laborious work. It’s actually good for them studying time administration and prioritization.”

Hazell performed volleyball from 2000 to 2001. In 2001, she was a part of the workforce that performed within the state championship, however her workforce was defeated within the semifinals.

Moreover, she was named convention MVP and was an All-State choice. Hazell has been teaching at El Camino since 2005, beginning as an assistant coach, then taking up this system as head coach in 2017.

As a coach, she preaches the significance of utilizing educational assets to permit success within the classroom.

At El Camino, the Triple A program works together with the campus library to make sure pupil success by offering an space for college kids the place they will benefit from educational assets comparable to tutoring, in addition to engaged on educational assignments.

The Writing Heart, positioned within the Humanities Constructing, is one other useful resource the place college students obtain tutoring with writing assignments, in addition to brainstorming and creating concepts.

Dean Lofgren, the coach for the cross nation and observe and subject packages, has been teaching at El Camino for 38 years and is conscious the South Bay Promise is a program that pulls college students into the faculty.

The South Bay Promise is a program that waives enrollment charges for full-time college students attending faculty for first-time highschool graduates. This system can even waive these charges for second-year college students.

“Most all the native excessive faculties are properly instructed by their highschool counselors, in addition to media publicity that the South Bay Promise is there, and is accessible to them.”

“College students that come from our native excessive faculties which might be conscious of the South Bay Promise get issues going step-by-step counseling, registration,” Lofgren stated, who initially started as an assistant coach, and later took the reigns as head coach in 1989. “It’s an awesome alternative for them.”

To make sure a rise in enrollment, Lofgren practices the normal manner of recruiting athletes to doubtlessly be part of cross nation and observe and subject packages at El Camino by reaching out to native excessive faculties.

Moreover, highschool seniors uncover the campus’ athletic amenities by excursions given by Lofgren, which finally performs a think about a pupil’s determination to enroll at El Camino as a student-athlete.

Sequoia Gonzales, a freshman out of Torrance Excessive Faculty, is a member of El Camino’s cross-country workforce. She was recruited by Lofgren to run on the faculty.

Gonzales had identified Lofgren earlier than attending El Camino, as each her mother and father attended the faculty, and competed on Lofgren’s groups as college students. A part of her determination in eager to attend El Camino was the out there assets the faculty has for student-athletes.

“Positively the FYE Program,” stated Gonzales, referring to the First Yr Expertise Program, in addition to the on-campus assets that caught her consideration. “After all, the South Bay Promise was very eye-catching for me for certain.”

The FYE program is a program for first-year faculty college students that gives academic and profession steering. Precedence registration is likely one of the benefits a pupil can take with this system.

“It’s an awesome alternative to get your first few years free,” Hazell stated. “That’s for anyone on campus and never simply athletes.”