Canyons Closer to Football

VALENCIA — College of the Canyons soon might have a football team after all.

The Santa Clarita Community College Board of Trustees on Wednesday night recommended that the school’s program be reinstated starting with the 1998 season if several criteria are met within the next several weeks.

The vote was 4-0, with one member absent.

A football feasibility committee had recommended to the board at an earlier meeting that the sport, which was discontinued at Canyons after the 1981 season primarily because of economic reasons, be resurrected.

Twelve key issues were addressed Wednesday at Canyons and must be resolved to the board’s satisfaction by July 9 before final approval.

They include concerns about meeting federally mandated gender-equity athletic guidelines, which the creation of a football team would drastically affect, and financial questions.

“There are a lot of things we do not yet know . . . that will determine the feasibility of moving forward,” said Dianne Van Hook, Canyons president and district superintendent.

Of primary interest to the board is gender equity, or Title IX, which calls for colleges to comply or at least show progress toward compliance by 2000.

Title IX guidelines, which stipulate zero tolerance, require that the percentage of female athletes at a school be the same as the percentage of full-time female students. At Canyons, the difference is 12%, or 53% female full-time students to 41% female athletes.

The board also remains concerned how the program would be financed, and particularly where the $145,000 start-up costs will originate.