The Space Race: Basketball games against San Marcos to be held at City College

Danny Langhorne
Editor-in-Chief
More than three hundred supporters showed up to the Santa Barbara vs San Marcos football game on October 25. Many parents and students from SBHS had to stand at the game because of a lack of seating for all fans of the visiting team at San Marcos. To insure similar problems did not occur during the boys basketball season Principals Mark Capritto and Craig Morgan have decided to change the venue of the SM vs. SB basketball games to the sports’ arena of Santa Barbara City College. “We wanted to avoid this problem this basketball season because San Marcos gym is so tiny. It was just unfair for us to have a home field advantage because we can fit everyone in our gym fine,” said SBHS Athletics Director Nan Verkaik.
The option of moving the games to City College was earlier proposed by Capritto during the discussions to hold the San Marcos-Santa Barbara football game because it coincided with the opening night of the Halloween weekend in Isla Vista. “It didn’t make sense to have that problem again. The rivalry between the two schools is just too big and there is always a huge turn out for these games,” said Capritto.
Capritto added Morgan and he decided that it would be in the best interest of the schools if the games were moved to a larger facility such as SBCC’s gym. “The problem with our home gyms is that the fans are so close to the court, so all it would take would be one person tripping a player and it could start a major incident. That’s why City College’s gym is so good because the fan’s are farther away from the court,” said Verkaik.
The past practice of having games at SBCC was investigated by both Morgan and Capritto and it was seen as the best course of action for this basketball season. Security for the games will be provided by the Santa Barbara Police Department and will be paid for by the home team of the event according to Morgan. It costs $20,000 just for the football season which includes paying for ambulances and police at the games. “No matter what security is going to be our top priority for the games; money isn’t an issue when it come to the safety of our students,” said Capritto.
Renting the gym at SBCC will cost five hundred dollars but the athletics department will have to pay for police security as well. The first scheduled basketball game with San Marcos is January 11.
SBHS’ administration currently has no plans to relocate the SM vs SB football games in 2008 to SBCC but the issue of seating at San Marcos is being rectified.