Culver City Observer -

SUSPENDED FOR 2012-13

With great regret, Steve Aggers the Athletic Director at West Los Angeles College announces that the Wildcats Men’s Basketball program would be suspended for at least the 2012-13 school year. The decision was necessitated by severa years of budget cuts to the college precipitating multi-year cuts to the Athletics Department.

“Making a decision of this magnitude was extremely difficult and required many hours of thought and deliberation,” explained Aggers. “However, we feel that we made the best possible decision that impacts the fewest number of student-athletes and employees, while preserving the integrity of the remaining programs in our department.”

The college initially considered further reducing the budget allocation to every team to make keeping all of the teams possible. But, with their budgets already so lean, such across-the-board reductions would severely hobble all of the programs. Instead, it was decided to suspend one team to allow the others to remain adequately funded.

Official practice for California Community College basketball teams begins October 1. Games begin in early November. Announcing the decision at this time gives the affected students an opportunity to enroll at other California Community Colleges for the Fall. By rule, they will be immediately eligible to compete.

West’s remaining Fall and Winter athletic teams are Men’s and Women’s Cross Country, Men’s Football, Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Soccer and Women’s Basketball.

“Athletics programs draw in some students who may not have otherwise considered attending college as well as motivated, talented players who enrich their college experience and contribute to college pride. Our West athletics program has been eminently successful in supporting male and female students in defining and successfully pursuing academic goals. But under the current fiscal pressures that have led to course cancellations across all disciplines, we unfortunately are unable to sustain the number of sports in which we have competed heretofore, while maintaining our primary missions of university transfer preparation, and career and technical education,“ said College President, Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh.

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