YOUTH FOOTBALL TEAM GETS THE BOOT VAN NUYS HIGH BARS EAST VALLEY TROJANS.

Byline: ERIK BOAL

Special to the Daily News

The East Valley Trojans have been a fixture at Van Nuys High School for more than a decade.

But the local youth football organization, entering its 32nd year of operation, had to call an audible this week when Van Nuys head football coach Steve Yarnall and school administrators told East Valley League President Lyle Fair that his teams would no longer be allowed to use school facilities for practices and games.

The Trojans, whose program has long been considered a pipeline to Van Nuys High, were scheduled Wednesday to hold the first night of practices for the upcoming fall season. Instead, Fair and other board members were relegated to holding late sign-ups outside Van Nuys' stadium while directing athletes to Whitsett Park in nearby North Hollywood.

"They waited until the first day of practice to tell us," Fair said. "In order for a field permit to get revoked, some sort of infraction had to occur. We haven't even stepped on the field."

Fair confirmed the Trojans have had a permit on file with the West Hills Civic Center, which handles permits for youth organizations throughout the East Valley, since June 24.

Although Yarnall was involved in a verbal altercation with Fair on July 21 over field usage that resulted in Van Nuys' youth services director filing a report with L.A. School Police officials, the first-year coach insists there have been several events during the past 13 years that led the school to making its decision.

"They've done nothing over the years to help keep our facility clean or to assist with the groundskeeping," Yarnall said. "Any time a school lets any kind of youth organization use their facilities, it has to be a cooperative effort between the two parties. They've been here for many years and they really haven't taken care of anything."

Prior incidents

Van Nuys Athletic Director Terry Stoller added that he has suspended the Trojans from field usage twice during his 11-year tenure because parking by coaches and parents blocked paramedics from being able to enter the stadium to attend to injured athletes.

Stoller added the adult school that Van Nuys shares its property with has also requested that people affiliated with the Trojans organization park on the street, instead of on campus, only to be repeatedly ignored. The school's former youth services director said Van Nuys' decision isn't the first time the Trojans have been faced with finding alternate venues to practice.

"They used to be at North Hollywood and they kicked them out, but no one with the club today was there when that happened," Stoller said.

"What it came down to was they just didn't follow through on anything they said they were going to do."

Fair claims that Van Nuys has involved the Trojans in a "bidding war," with the school making facilities available to Valley United, a local club soccer organization, which is capable of spending in excess of $1,000 a month for field usage, costs the nonprofit East Valley League can't afford to match.

"We had some rough years in the past, but we've worked too hard to get this program back up to the level it's at," Fair said. "We're about helping kids. I don't know how pulling the plug on a youth organization is going to help us."

Yarnall was hired as coach in December and took over youth services from Stoller a short time thereafter.

During his short tenure as coach, Yarnall had to serve a six-week suspension for an altercation with a player, one which he was later cleared of any wrongdoing, according to Stoller.

Yarnall said the decision to allow Valley United to use Van Nuys' fields had nothing to do with financial gains. Yarnall was more concerned with finding a group that was more attentive to maintaining the school's facilities, something Valley United has cooperated with by regularly donating work days on campus in exchange for field usage.

"When I was hired, I tried to make them feel at home, but they just thought it was business as usual at Van Nuys High," Yarnall said.

"While they were sitting on their hands, we were able to find another youth organization that wanted to do what was best for them and what was best for us."

Students come first

Fair and other members of East Valley's board of directors had a meeting July 23 with Van Nuys Assistant Principal Tom Emery in an attempt to improve the relationship between the two parties. As of Friday, Fair said he hadn't received a response from Emery, who didn't return calls from the Daily News.

"For 32 years there hasn't been a problem, but now it's getting hectic and it's getting personal," Trojans Pee Wee coach Ayinde Bomani said. "They have a new coach and he's doing what's best for himself. He's saying that we're not sending players here and that we're not doing anything for them. But how do you kick off a Pop Warner team and take away our permit just a few weeks before the season? It's one of those things that baffles me."

Yarnall acknowledges the school's decision might hurt the football program's chances of Trojans attending Van Nuys in the future, but believes the action was long overdue.

"It's extremely unfortunate when you make a change because the circumstances are going to make some people unhappy," he said. "In the future, we would love to get some of their players, but we have to protect our facility for our students because our students come first."

erik.boal(at)dailynews.com

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The East Valley Trojans will no longer be able to practice or play their Pop Warner football games at Van Nuys High School after a decision by the school's coaches and administrators.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News