Harbor College (Calif.) Only Has Money For Salaries, Needs Fundraising To Save Sports

The Daily Breeze, Mike Waldner

http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ci_20643142/sports-programs-face-bleak-future-at-cash-strapped

Rumors to the contrary, Harbor College has not eliminated football.

Alarmed observers will claim this is merely a technicality. Their view is all Seahawk athletic programs are being gutted.

Hard to argue this point.

Just look at the Harbor College athletics budget for 2012-13.

First, get a magnifying glass. The budget is that small.

Salaries for coaches.

That’s it. That’s the budget.

Uniforms? Equipment? Pine tar? Travel? Meals? Umpires and officials? Additional expenses?

Go raise the money yourself.

In the future – if there is a future – when a coach is hired, along with checking his or her philosophy of the sport, ability to communicate with young athletes and focus on academics, it will be mandatory to make sure the prospective coach is a crack fundraiser.

No wonder Nabeel Baratak is an anxious man these days.

Baratak is Harbor College’s athletic director. A perfect example of the belt-tightening on his campus, he also is chairman of the physical education, health and wellness department, which is at least a job and a half by itself. The upset is he has not been asked to add leading the marching band to his list of assignments. That’s only because Harbor College does not have a marching band.

“We were told we need $250,000 by July,” he said.

He took a deep breath.

“That was in February,” he said.

In the greater scheme of things, $250,000 may not seem like a lot of money. Not when compared to the $2.15billion purchase price of the Dodgers. Not when compared to Kobe Bryant’s $25,244,000 salary.

It is a great deal of money for a 10,000-enrollment community college tucked away in Wilmington. It is a lot of money in the nine-school Los Angeles Community College district plagued by mismanagement charges spinning out of runaway construction costs at other campuses.

It’s not just the amount of money needed to keep programs running – football reportedly needs $62,000 – it’s the small window of time in which coaches have to find the money.

“We’ll be OK a year from now,” Baratak said. “There will be time to raise the money.”

That’s an optimistic future. At the moment, they feel the financial walls closing in on them at Harbor College. They know if a sport shuts down it will not be easy to get it reinstated.

The success of two events will play a major role in determining the future of Harbor College athletics. First up is the Harbor Foundation Golf Classic on June 22. Then comes a dinner/auction July 14 at the San Pedro Doubletree Hotel.

“It’s heartbreaking to think we might not make it,” Baratak said.

That was his rare pessimistic moment.

For the most part, he will not allow himself to have negative thoughts.

“I think we’re going to succeed,” he said, sounding hopefully positive.

They’ll succeed, they’ll save athletics at Harbor College, if people are willing to donate items for their auction. They’ll succeed if people dig deep when they bid on the items. They’ll succeed if people play in the golf tournament and buy tickets for the dinner.

Donations can be delivered to Baratak’s office on campus. Or you can contact him at 310-233-4351. Anyone interested in the golf tournament or the dinner can call Juanita Naranjo, Harbor College’s coordinator of institutional advancement, at 310-233-4446.

One thing really rubs Baratak the wrong way. That’s when people question the need for athletics at the community college.

“They talk about achieving the dream,” he said.

As in achieving the American Dream via a college education.

“I really get furious at somebody who could say we are achieving the dream for a lot of kids, but you have to cut athletics,” he said.

Nabeel Barakat knows of what he speaks when he asks his question because he is living the dream. Born in Sudan to Lebanese parents, he immigrated to the U.S. on his own at age 17 and is a graduate of Long Beach State.

Look at the young people who attend Harbor College because a sport prompted them to enroll. Look at the number of athletes, marginal students at the start, who find their academic focus and secure a brighter future because of athletics. Look at the number of athletes who are financially able to continue their education at universities only because they earned scholarships while at Harbor College.

That’s achieving the dream.

Hopefully, it will be possible to continue achieving the dream via athletics at Harbor College.