CUTS HIT HOME AT LCC.

Byline: Chris Hansen The Register-Guard

The Lane Community College baseball and volleyball teams - resurrected from extinction just eight years ago - will be sacrificed once again as the athletic department attempts to adjust to the harsh realities of the school's current budget crisis.

The LCC Board will meet tonight to make its final decision on the campus-wide cuts made necessary by a $3.1 million shortfall in the college's general fund for the 2003-04 school year.

The LCC Board is expected to make a $96,000 cut to the athletic department's budget, which was approximately $200,000 this year after having $96,000 trimmed away last spring.

With that knowledge, the LCC executive committee asked interim athletic director Sean Mondragon, and health and physical education department chairman Patrick Lanning, to submit a proposal showing how the athletic department would deal with the cuts.

Their plan includes the elimination of both the baseball and volleyball programs, which would save approximately $78,000. The final $18,000 will come from trimming back hours of select athletic staff members, including the trainer and director of athletics.

"Lane has a very strong tradition with its athletic programs, so we were not very happy about having to do this," said Mondragon, who assumed his current position in January when Harland Yriarte retired after 12 years as director of athletics. "But we also understand the situation the school is in."

Baseball and volleyball were previously eliminated - along with men's and women's cross country - in 1991 in what was also a budget cut. The four teams were brought back in 1995 when the LCC student body voted to fund those sports through a $5 incidental fee charge per student per term that brings in approximately $140,000 a year.

Until now, those four sports had been viewed as untouchable because they weren't funded through money from the school's general fund as basketball and track and field were.

However, with the blessing from college president Mary Spilde and student body president Greg Duncan, Lanning said the athletic department was able to look at all the sports equally when deciding what to cut without fear of losing the student fee money.

"When the students voted in 1995, they weren't voting to fund those particular sports as much as they were voting to fund athletics," Lanning explained. "The idea was to bring back sports. Plus, it's a different situation today than it was then."

That explanation doesn't sit well with baseball coach Donny Harrel.

"What the students voted for isn't being protected," Harrel said. "Now it's up to the athletic director to pick and choose, and I don't think that's right."

Harrel's sour feelings stem from the obvious reasons associated with losing his job and his program, especially since he has turned the Titans into one of the NWAACC's dominant baseball teams in his seven seasons as their coach.

"I understand something needs to be cut; we're in a deficit," Harrel said. "But they're cutting the most successful college baseball program in Oregon (over the past six years) other than George Fox, a four-year school."

Under Harrel, who took over in 1997, Lane has 216 victories and two Southern Division titles. The Titans won an NWAACC championship in 1999, lost in the title game in 1998, and are the only team in the NWAACC to make the conference playoffs in each of the past six seasons.

This season, the Titans are 19-7 overall, 15-2 in the Southern Region. On Tuesday, Lane will attempt to tie the school record of 12 consecutive victories when it plays host to Chemeketa in a doubleheader at 1 p.m.

However, winning percentages and championship banners were not taken into consideration when deciding which sports to eliminate, Mondragon said.

"Out of our eight teams, volleyball and baseball are two of the more expensive sports," Mondragon said. "And our biggest thing was to eliminate as few sports as possible."

The Titans will be left with men's and women's cross country in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track and field in the spring.

"We will have no college baseball in this town now," Harrel said. "Kids won't have anyplace to go to play college baseball anymore."

Harrel, as well as volleyball coach Dale Weigandt, have both said they've been told their players will have their scholarships honored, though each coach said he expects most players to consider transferring to schools where they can play.

"My returning kids are just broken up right now," said Weigandt, who has been coach at Lane for three seasons after spending 10 years coaching at North Eugene High School. "We were just starting to build a program."

Mondragon shares his frustration.

"No matter what you do, you're not going to make everybody happy," he said. "This whole thing is just unfortunate, and it hasn't been easy."

CAPTION(S):

Lane Community College swept a pair of baseball games against Clackamas on Saturday to extend its winning streak to 10 games. Porter Smith and his Lane baseball teammates are an NWAACC power, but the program is now on the chopping block. Lane Community College's Porter Smith (center) gets a round of high fives Saturday after scoring the Titan's first run in the second game of a doubleheader at Swede Johnson Field. The LCC Board is expected to cut the school's athletic department budget which would mean the end of one of the most successful baseball programs in Oregon. C o l l e g e A t h l e t i c s Paul Carter / The Register-Guard The Lane Community College Titans have won an NWAACC title and finished second once since the program was resuscitated in 1995.