“I resent the manner in which they have dealt with this situation,” Seattle Pacific College basketball coach-athletic director Les Habegger explained in response to a decision disclosed yesterday by the Evergreen Conference to boycott Falcon athletic teams.
“The explanations for wanting to stop playing us are not logical when you examine the over-all picture,” Habegger said, referring to the league's isolation of the boycott to Seattle Pacific and the University of Puget Sound.
According to Central Washington AD Adrian Beamer, then president of the Evco, the league reached a decision last fall to stop scheduling the duo in what amounts to a pressure move to bring the two NCAA college division independents into the league.
“We feel the Falcons (and UPS) are benefitting from the existence of our league without having to comply with its restrictions,” Beamer explained from Ellensburg yesterday.
“We (the Evco) asked SPC, UPS, Portland State, Simon Fraser and Southern Oregon to join the league at our meeting last fall,” Beamer said. “We made concessions regarding the number of sports a school would have to participate in, the policy of athletic scholarships and did not demand that they become members of the NAIA.”
Only Southern Oregon accepted the invitation to join. Habagger claims the Evco is “being illogical” when it will continue to allow the scheduling of Portland State, an NCAA independent like SPC, or Simon Fraser, which allows athletic scholarships and endorses athletic policies similar to those of SPC.
The Evco would like to bring the Falcons in as a league member. Habegger admits SPC might benefit by joining.
“But this is hardly the way to reach a working agreement,” Habegger explained.
“No one came to me and actually discussed anything about the league's decision. I learned about the boycott through the back door, in effect. It looks like a smoke screen for something beyond the explanation they are giving.”
The Falcons, who competed against Whitworth and Central during the basketball season, are scheduled to face Evco teams in several spring sports.
“Apparently the boycott won't start until next year. We'll just have to make some adjustments in our program,” Habegger added. “What really bothers me is the lack of logic behind their (the league officials) boycotting us, and not others who represent the same outside standards to them.”
