West L.A. to Offer at Least 4 Sports

West Los Angeles College, which dropped football and baseball in May because of financial problems and layoffs in the Los Angeles Community College District, will offer four sports and possibly a fifth in the next school year.

Jim Raack, WLAC athletic director, said the college will field teams in men’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis and golf and possibly women’s volleyball.

Raack said that under current plans, he will coach men’s tennis, Virginia Waldron will again coach women’s tennis and Charles Sands, veteran coach of men’s basketball, will be the head man for that sport and golf.

Three coaches who were originally laid off and then reassigned to classroom teaching duties have not been given any coaching duties. But Raack said it is possible that Jim Babcock, former head football coach, and his assistant Steve Butler could wind up as coaches, Babcock in golf and Butler in women’s volleyball. He said it is also possible that former women’s volleyball coach Alma Marshall could again coach that sport if she is rehired by the district.

In May, Raack said that Art Harris, the head baseball coach who was reassigned to teach mathematics, was considering taking over men’s tennis. But the athletic director said this week that Harris “has other irons in the fire.”

After the May announcement, Harris denied that he was considering any coaching duties at WLAC. “My current plans are to accept the teaching assignment mandated by the district. At the same time, I will try to look for another opportunity in the baseball coaching field,” he said.