By Sonny Tapia
Creating a successful athletic program in college takes more than just good players and coaches. In order to be considered a good athletic school, the program must possess the funding and notoriety of a top tier program.
The funding for programs such as the University of Alabama, Duke University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Oregon comes mostly through Nike.
The University of Kentucky publically renewed its contract with the brand for another eight years and $30.6 million towards its sports programs.
With high school stars on the rise in any sport, more and more high schools continue to receive sponsorship from a titan in the industry.
These schools are granted sponsorship from other brands such as Adidas, Under Armor and Reebok because they show promise in their athletic ability.
Most of the schools represented by these brands have had a wide range of publicity from newspaper articles to viral videos of players making professional style catches and dunks.
These schools continue to make the playoffs or even high ranks after the end of their seasons. Showing popularity and prosperity gains schools at any level sponsorships.
Making waves in social media has been one of the key elements in recent years for any school to be seen by a representative from one of the brands.
Another way a school becomes an athletic staple is through good scouting. Scouts working for colleges take notice of all the best talents that have been on social media or in their respective neighborhoods.
If a school has poor scouting, then the team will fail to climb the ladder of good athletic programs because there will not be any talent for other college scouts or even professional scouts to see.
The last player from East Los Angeles College to enter the professional sports arena was Atlanta Falcons’ running back Lynn Cain from 1979 to 1985.
Since then ELAC has produced D-1 athletes such as defensive end Ben Key and Ceejhay French-Love along with some basketball talent also entering D-1 schools.
None of these athletes have made it professionally since the rise of Cain and his quick feet behind the line of scrimmage.
Only one question can be asked, why?
ELAC scouts have clearly not seen real talent and potential in any players. The athletes found in high schools and other colleges that have come to ELAC have produced little to no success outside of community college sports.
If ELAC would like to establish a good name for itself athletic administrator Robert Godinez should look into hiring better scouts.
With basketball looking for a state championship this year ELAC needs to consider if the team is good enough to even make the playoffs this year.
In addition to good scouting a school must possess an active fan base that truly believes in its sports programs. It has been too long since the ELAC teams have sold out its sports complexes.
Around campus there are no flyers or banners supporting Husky sports. Most of the students do not even consider showing up to support their teams.
Lastly, players must show initiative to win. On ELAC football, some of the players enjoy having conversations of their own while the team is being dominated by underwhelming schools.
Basketball is slow to even stand when its teammate makes a wild or difficult basket. Most stay seated and uninvolved during the games.
The Husky baseball team shows emotion but at the wrong times and in the wrong ways. The players would rather throw tantrums about one missed call than take a commanding lead on the field or court.
There is a lack of discipline within ELAC sports that needs to change if it wants to be a successful sports program that players willingly want to enter.
Both men’s and women’s soccer show promise in the beginning of their seasons, but in the end they crumble like a landslide.
“The score does not reflect the way we play” is the common response from coaches who have not seen a winning record in years.
The element of being a part of a team is not instilled strong enough into the players. The ELAC Huskies sports program is lackluster to say the least and it will stay that way until changes are made in a big way.