Over the weekend, Los Angeles Pierce College football players and coaches grew concerned over rumors that their season was going to be cancelled by their administration. On the morning of Aug. 3, their fears were confirmed, as staff informed them the entire season was going to be put on hiatus – just weeks before the start of the fall semester.
Julian Sarzo, a graduate of San Fernando High School, was an incoming freshman who planned to be the quarterback on the team. He recalled that Monday morning being in the weight room with the other players on what was supposed to be their first day of practice.
He first heard rumors late Friday, July 31, from a former teammate that the Pierce College administration had sent an email to all the athletic directors in the Southern California Football Association (SCFA), which Pierce competes in, that their season was going to be cancelled. At first, he didn’t give too much weight to the rumors since they didn’t come from the coaching staff.
That feeling changed when he saw College President Aracely Aguilar, Acting Vice President of Student Services Carmen Dones and Athletic Director Deborah Hefter walk into the room. The head coach, James Sims, gathered the players into a meeting room where the college officials told them the news.
“The whole team basically broke down,” Sarzo said. “Seventy-five percent of our players on our team are from out of state. I had teammates from Belgium, Japan, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina [and] Hawaii who all just signed one-year apartment leases so they could compete at Pierce.
“After they told us that, everybody just kept on arguing back and forth,” he continued. “Everybody was talking about their lease agreements and what’s going to happen this year. When a player asked, ‘Is there any chance that you guys could revoke and change your decision?’ They said no, so we all got up and left.”
Robert “RJ” Sarzo, Julian Sarzo’s father, was a football coach for San Fernando High who had committed to volunteer as a coach for Pierce. When he got the message from his son that the season was cancelled, RJ called him, but had a hard time understanding him because he was crying.
“It’s really unfortunate … because there are so many kids that came from out of state,” RJ said. “A lot of these guys have to pay the full tuition because there’s no promise program for any out-of-state players. They made the commitment. … I’ve heard of parents [who] sold their car and they’re taking the bus just to get their kid out here to play.”
Sims was just as blindsided by the news. He first learned of the rumors through a player asking him if they were true. On Monday, Sims was called out to the hallway, told that the email sent on Friday was real and the season was cancelled.
“I told the athletic director that’s [expletive] up what you did,” Sims said. “You contacted all the other schools, and everybody else knows about this but us and the players. We had to hear from other people. And her answer to me in front of the [vice president] was, ‘Well, I was just doing what I was advised to do.’”
Pierce College released a statement on Aug. 4, saying they were monitoring the football roster throughout the summer and, after an evaluation, determined that it had not reached the size needed for the team to participate safely throughout the season.
“Our immediate priority is supporting every affected student-athlete,” the statement read. “Pierce College is working with the Southern California Football Association and other colleges to help students who wish to continue competing pursue opportunities with as little disruption as possible to their academic progress.”
However, the numbers don’t seem to add up. Before the cancellation, there were 45 players on the roster. When Sims became the head coach in 2022, there were only eight players on the team – which he managed to get up to 32 – and they still played their season uninterrupted.
One of the worst aspects of all this for Sims is how this affects the players. While Pierce hasn’t had a winning season in years, he celebrates the fact that many of his players go on to a four-year university, and some even received offers from Division 1 programs. But this year, that’s all gone.
“As a coach, I … take liability for everything that happens with that team,” Sims said. “But the administration is not taking any responsibility for their part. … If they were concerned about them, they would have met with the [team] and talked to them about how they were going to disrupt their lives. … Think about it: how hard is it going to be for those kids to transfer when they’re stuck in a one-year apartment lease?”
While the players were given waivers to transfer to a different college, which some already have, it was done at the last minute. Julian Sarzo said Monday was the last day for them to transfer to another community college – if the college had waited another day to make the announcement, all the players would’ve been stuck at Pierce.
But for Julian Sarzo, he’s only just starting to accept the fact that he’s going to take a gap year because, as a quarterback, there’s no room for him on other teams.
“We accepted the fact … there’s really nothing we could do. I’m just going to hope my boys can ball out at any other [junior college], and hopefully, I do the same next year.”