Bye-bye JVs; or, Why are Clovis' stadiums so much nicer?

The budget crisis that threatens so much of what we’ve come to take for granted as Californians has swooped into the gymnasium. The Kern High School District, largest in the state among grade 9-12 districts, will axe a big chunk of its athletic programs, a move expected to save $430,000 of the $3.7 million that still must be cut from the 2009-2010 budget.

Barring a fiscal miracle between now and July 2, teams that field three competitive tiers — varsity, junior varsity and frosh-soph — must eliminate one level. In the five affected sports, the intermediate junior varsity level seems the most likely to go.

Better a piece of the interscholastic sports program than still-deeper cuts to classroom teachers and academic programs, no question. But for those of us who value the character-, confidence- and fitness-enhancing contributions of prep sports, it’s a small tragedy.

Maybe you’ve heard the stories of Bakersfield schools’ long-running ownership of Central Valley championship trophies. That dominance has largely been ceded to Clovis schools over the past decade or so, and this decision only makes things worse in that regard.

The competitive gap between the two districts was already wide and getting wider, but for a different reason: facilities. The five Clovis high schools (120 miles to the north, essentially comprising the northeast corner of metropolitan Fresno) make Bakersfield-area schools look positively bush league in terms of stadiums, gyms, pools, field houses — you name it. The sad tale of Griffith Field, one of the oldest and most venerable sports stadiums in the Central Valley, aptly illustrates the situation. KHSD administrators would like to undertake a major renovation at the Bakersfield High School football stadium, built in 1923, but at this rate they might end up waiting until the facility’s centennial.

The hope is that Griffith Field might eventually get expanded seating, upgraded restrooms, handicap access improvements and perhaps a new, all-weather track. Clovis- and other Fresno-area schools have rubberized tracks in abundance — at last count, 21 schools up that way had them — but Liberty, Taft and Delano’s Cesar Chavez are the only local high schools with that amenity.

How can there be such a disparity? Because taxpayers elsewhere in the valley have been paying a small, supplementary arts-and-recreation fee on their property tax bills for decades, and schools have been able to tap those funds for athletic facilities not covered by education-related, capital-improvement funding.

Clovis Unified School District Superintendent Terry Bradley, who retires this summer, says Clovis pulled it off with a series of five school bonds, the first in 1986, that authorized the small property tax add-on. The bonds are now paid off.

“We have what we have,” Bradley said, “because the community paid for it.”

Clovis’ communitywide commitment to athletics has filtered down into the culture of the respective student bodies. The programs are deep, and the teams win.

Meanwhile, BHS and every other local school with similar dreams will have to wait for state capital-improvement funds to become available, and supplement them with fundraising efforts, as Liberty (with one of the district’s wealthier demographic profiles) did a few years ago.

How badly does the BHS stadium need work? Principal David Reese says Griffith Field would need to be shut down for a full year, probably immediately after the conclusion of a future football season. The track-and-field oval, which now curves behind the visiting bleachers — talk about a poor view of that second baton handoff — would get a makeover. Adding an all-weather track would give the city a second venue for big meets — a centrally located, easy-access-to-Highway-99 facility. But it’ll be costly. Don’t hold your breath waiting.

As for the funding for team sports, it might get worse before it gets better: The KHSD says it must cut $30 million more over the next three years.

It’ll take work and creativity to overcome what seems to be a growing disadvantage for Kern County — now on a second front — in the field of athletics.

E-mail Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com or twitter.com/stubblebuzz.