Two City High Schools Drop Boys’ Volleyball

Cleveland and El Camino Real highs will not field boys’ volleyball teams this season.

Because El Camino Real already had filled the maximum number of paid coaching positions--23--allowed by City Section guidelines, the school was forced to drop a sport when it added boys’ soccer earlier this season. The school chose to drop boys’ volleyball in part because Coach John Theisen left the school.

The City instituted the limit on coaching positions in 1991 as a cost-containment measure.

“Most schools were not up to their maximum (then),” City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said. “Now, because we’re making a push to add as many sports as we can, and there seems to be more students than ever before who want to participate, (the limit) is starting to become a difficulty.”

Cleveland dropped boys’ volleyball because it could not find a replacement for last year’s coach, Tim Gaines, a walk-on who also coached the girls’ team. Gaines resigned after the fall season.

Cleveland officials said they hope to field a girls’ team in the fall and a boys’ team next spring.