Bottom Line: Winning Is Often a Losing Proposition : High schools: Sending a team to the state playoffs can set a program back thousands. For teams that get CIF backing, funds generally amount to no more than a token gesture.

Bill Sumner, Corona del Mar High School cross-country coach, knows how to stretch a budget. But there’s no way he can keep pace with the bills his team is running up this season.

“We have a $400 annual budget for cross-country,” Sumner said. “We have 93 kids (at all levels) competing for us. Our budget ran out the second week of the season. It’s a sad deal.”

But the spending is far from over for the Sea Kings, and Sumner is finding out that the price of success can be high.

Sumner will load 16 of his best runners into a van this weekend and drive to Fresno for the state championships. They’ll pay for van rental (the district’s vans don’t have heating or air conditioning), meals, a hotel room and gas.

“We’re looking at $2,500 to $3,000 for this trip alone,” Sumner said. “That is going to hurt a lot of budgets.”

Because the state CIF doesn’t reimburse schools for travel to the state cross-country championships, many schools scramble to cover their costs.

Jerry Jelnick, Corona del Mar’s athletic director, said a small fund in the school’s general athletic budget will help pay some of it. But he hopes the remaining expenses will be covered by the booster club or the school district.

“There’s no doubt that it’s tough for schools to cover these costs,” Jelnick said. “Cross-country doesn’t bring in any money because they don’t charge (for attendance) at the meets.

“You have to let the kids go to the meet. There’s always a choice of not going, but there’s so much pressure to send them up there. If we tell them they can’t go, then we look like a horse’s (behind).”

Cross-country isn’t the only sport for which schools must dip into their pockets during the playoffs. More and more Orange County high schools and school districts are struggling to cover increasing travel expenses for athletic teams:

--Woodbridge lost about $4,500 when the Warriors won the 1987 state Division II boys’ basketball title.

--Mater Dei used private donations to cover a $6,000 loss when the Monarchs won the 1987 state Division I boys’ basketball title.

--Servite lost about $800 for the playoffs while winning its first state basketball title, in Division III, last spring. Donations kept the deficit at a minimum.

Basketball teams are partially reimbursed for travel expenses by the CIF. Other sports must fend for themselves.

Santa Margarita is sending nine girls and two coaches to the state cross-country meet. Athletic Director Rich Schaaf called the CIF office and learned his school wouldn’t be reimbursed a dime.

“We are lucky that we have four school vans, otherwise it would cost a fortune,” Schaaf said.

“We didn’t anticipate any of this,” he added. “All the cheaper hotels are booked that night, so the rooms are going to cost us $80 to $85 for one night. We’ll have to eat the costs.”

So will Corona del Mar.

“We wouldn’t miss this meet for the world,” Sumner said. “By making the state finals in California, you’ve accomplished something. We have to make arrangements to get the kids there.”

Tom Byrnes, commissioner of athletics with the CIF, said he doesn’t know of any state office that pays for cross-country travel expenses.

“It has never been done here as far back as I can remember,” he said. “Also, you have individuals competing in the meet as well as teams. It’s not to say it (reimbursement) couldn’t be done, but it has never been that way for the individual sports.”

Some playoff teams, such as the Southern Section football and state basketball and girls’ volleyball participants, receive some compensation for travel.

Using money from the general operating budget--raised through sponsorships, tournament revenue and membership fees--the state office pays schools $1 a mile for traveling by bus or van and $2 a mile for teams traveling by air.

Byrnes said the mileage money the state playoffs offer is more than all but one section pays for their playoffs. The Southern Section pays 75 cents per mile round-trip for travel expenses.

“Teams in the state tournament also have to travel farther than they do in the sections,” Byrnes said.

Still, schools say the reimbursement isn’t keeping up with travel costs.

Some schools spend as much as $500 for each private bus they charter for long trips. For shorter trips, schools use the districts’ busing system.

“The price of gas is going up and room costs are going up,” Jelnick said. “We’ve been fortunate to do well in (revenue-producing) sports . . . I don’t know how some schools do it without good football and basketball teams.

“I don’t mean to be sour. The state playoffs are great, but schools should be rewarded a little more for participating.”

Although Woodbridge was reimbursed for part of its basketball trip in 1987, the school still struggled to pay for the rest of the expenses, Coach Bill Shannon said.

“The state tournament is completely the opposite of the NCAA tournament,” Shannon said. “In the NCAA tournament, teams complain about (missing out on a $280,000 payoff). It’s 180-degree turnaround with the state tournament.”

At the high school level, the concern isn’t over the amount of money made but rather over minimizing losses.

Margaret Davis, the CIF’s associate commissioner of athletics, said the reimbursement rates were set “three or four years ago.”

“There has always been talk of changing it, if the CIF could afford it,” Davis said. “We feel we’re doing a good job with the subsidy we do allow.”

Davis said some teams are reimbursed more if a tournament makes a profit.

For example, the Corona del Mar girls’ volleyball team spent $2,910 traveling to Bakersfield, San Diego and San Jose during the 1989 state tournament. The CIF reimbursed the school $2,731.

Davis said the state volleyball tournament had a $12,000 profit last year and could afford to reimburse teams most of their expenses.

“The way we’re set up now, we’re breaking even and still getting some money back to the schools,” Davis said. “That’s a good sign for volleyball.”

Other schools are finding other, innovative ways to pay for travel costs.

El Toro Athletic Director John Johansen said the school chartered two buses for a 110-mile trip to Ventura to play Buena in the first round of the Division II football playoffs. The Chargers spent nearly $3,000 on the trip, most of it on six buses they chartered for the team, cheerleaders and parents. But Johansen wasn’t worried about paying for it. Each El Toro athlete pays $60 to the district at the start of the season, and the district allocates the money for travel as needed.

“Our trip to Ventura wasn’t very cost-effective,” Johansen said. “Most of it comes out of the boys’ athletic budget, and some from the district. We bring in a lot more football gate money than most teams in the county, so we’re OK.”

But Sumner, Corona del Mar’s cross-country coach, said athletes and parents shouldn’t have to cover the costs.

“We’re begging for money right now,” he said. “Someone will come through for us. If the school doesn’t have have it, then it goes to the booster club.

“But we can’t keep pushing it off on the kids and the parents.”