All Over but the Cheering

CARSON —  Fewer than 48 hours before the start of the 30th annual L.A. Watts Summer Games--the nation’s largest high school athletic competition--Kevin Boucher of Sherman Oaks gears up for another “respond-and-react” day of preparation.

Boucher (pronounced Boo-shay), director of projects for the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce which puts on the event, skips breakfast and starts his day with a cup of coffee.

“I’m not an eater,” he says. “Especially with all this going on.”

After a quick stop at the Chamber office downtown, Boucher continues his freeway journey along a circuitous route to the main site of the Watts Games, Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Despite the frustrating drive on overcrowded freeways, the French-Canadian from Connecticut knows this is the easy part.

Dressed in khaki shorts and a gray polo shirt, Boucher, a 5-foot-9 bundle of energy at 30, is ready for anything. When planning an event of this magnitude--which will include 13,000 high school athletes, cheerleaders, band members and musicians in 20 events, 783 volunteers and 300 officials--the unexpected is certainly expected.

Although the name has remained, this isn’t the same event it was when it began in 1968 with 152 athletes competing in three sports.

With the growth comes plenty of growing pains.

Armed with a cellular phone, five rolodexes and a three-inch thick datebook/organizer, Boucher turns a 10-by-10 foot office into his work station--and the troubleshooting begins.

“It’s like that [arcade] gopher game where the gophers pop up out of the holes and you try to pound them as fast as you can,” said Boucher, who directed the last three Watts Games.

“It’s respond and react all day long.”

Like clockwork, Boucher’s first “gopher” appears as soon as he arrives at the Dominguez Hills campus:

9:05 a.m.--Boucher discovers there is no backdrop on the main stage, which was set up a day earlier.

Workers arrive and begin setting up the area around the stage, which will serve as the focal point of the festival as well as the site for music competition.

Within several hours, a barren dirt field--about half the size of a football field--is turned into a festival-like arena, complete with artificial turf, 250 chairs and the framework for several vendor booths.

10:10--A parking attendant tells Boucher to move his car, which is parked in a no-parking zone just outside his make-shift office. “I’m with the L.A. Watts Summer Games. . . “ Boucher begins.

But the parking attendant isn’t in the mood for conversation. “Move it now,” she bellows from her white Bronco.

Boucher’s Mental Note: Call Public Safety and Parking.

10:25--From his car, Boucher unloads L.A. Watts T-shirts from the past 29 years to be used for a display.

The T-shirts have become something of a collector’s item and Boucher doesn’t want the valuable souvenirs getting “lost.”

10:29--Boucher moves his car to a parking lot.

10:43--Boucher calls “Joe” at the L.A. County general services office to find out what happened to the stage’s backdrop.

“They gave [the backdrop] to somebody else,” Boucher tells his tag-along. “[Joe] said, ‘Oh, that backdrop is being used at another event.’ ”

Mental Note: Find another backdrop.

10:58--Boucher has a five-minute conversation with his assistant, Michelle Wong, on speaker phone.

If he isn’t on a cellular phone--which is among the 46 donated by L.A. Cellular for the event--he’s on a speaker phone.

Although Boucher said he hates cell phones, it is obvious his workload requires it.

“The time you’re most in demand is when you’re least accessible,” Boucher said.

This is the first of several dozen of calls between Wong, who is working downtown at the main office, and Boucher during the course of the day.

It is the first of four calls in nine minutes made by Boucher, who punctuates much of his conversation with, “Cool” and “You’re the man.”

11:09--”Mike” returns Boucher’s call on the cell phone and Boucher relays his needs to his supervisor of rentals and tenting.

First, Boucher gets Mike working on a mobile roller hockey rink for rent. The one they had planned on fell through. VCRs and a stage backdrop also must be located.

Oh, and one more thing: Need to find a portable four-room dressing trailer for the musicians who will be preforming at the Games in the next two weekends.

Talent like Ice-T, the Alkoholics and Ras Kass can’t be expected to dress in an port-a-potty, can they?

11:18--”Gordon,” supervisor of tenting, beckons Boucher to the staging area to discuss the logistics of where the shade tents should be.

While discussing tents with Gordon, “Edna” returns Boucher’s call on his cell phone. Edna, the music supervisor, needs pickup times and sites for the limousine service, which will pick up the performing talent.

And by the way, Edna says, Ice-T is set to perform on the closing day, June 29.

“It’s coming together,” Boucher says.

11:30--Assistant Michelle calls to say there is a problem getting the checks for the vendors signed today. The soonest it can be done is the following day, she says.

Unsatisfied with that answer, Boucher gives Michelle instructions on who to call to get the checks signed today.

11:34--Boucher checks his voice mail messages. There are two.

“Yesterday I had 120 phone calls,” said Boucher, who logs every message he gets into his personal planner.

“My personal goal is to return all calls the same day--or at least in 24 hours,” he said.

11:44--Assistant Michelle calls back to say checks can’t be signed until tomorrow.

11:49--Good news: “Neil” tells Boucher he has found a backdrop for the stage.

12:07 p.m.--”Will” calls to clarify with Boucher the distribution of news releases.

While talking to Will, Boucher clicks over with call-waiting feature to talk to Mike, who wants to relay information about the mobile talent trailer.

A single day’s use of a four-room dressing trailer will run $500, Mike says. That’s $200 for the trailer and $300 for the driver.

Mental Memo: Keep looking for a trailer.

12:08--Gordon comes to the office again to ask again about the logistics of tents and stages while Boucher is on the phone with Will.

Call waiting: It’s “Leslie” from Mike’s office who is calling to confirm delivery time for the portable bleachers, which will be used in the gymnasium to section off two separate courts.

12:14--Finally, a break. While talking to Leslie and smoking a cigarette, Boucher gets another call from his assistant, Michelle. It’s about those unsigned checks again.

Also, it appears one vendor has tried to go around Boucher and get paid double.

12:20--After a couple of calls to volunteers regarding the need for a trailer, Boucher hunts down a phone book.

“Gonna have to do some cold calling,” Boucher announces.

12:27--”Yvonne,” the assignment editor from Channel 4, calls to ask about feature possibilities on athletes who will be playing in the Watts Games.

Who is the next John Elway, Pat Haden, Elden Campbell, Lisa Leslie, Valerie Brisco or Ann Meyers?

Mental Note: Find out who’s hot in girls’ basketball.

12:33--Boucher begins calling around for a portable trailer rental.

Three calls and . . . Bingo! Found a mobile home that will house up to 12 people and cost $350 for the weekend.

12:39--”Bleacher Guy” calls to confirm delivery and pick-up times for portable bleachers to be used in gymnasium.

12:43--Boucher calls assistant Michelle to OK a letter (with only a slight change to cut down on verbiage on the last sentence) to a media outlet. Boucher picks up on Michelle’s emotional state of fatigue.

“Hey,” he starts, “Your happiness is. . . . “

”. . . your only concern,” Michelle finishes.

1:11--Douglas Ferraro, Boucher’s boss and executive director of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, brings lunch. Two slices of pepperoni pizza.

2:10--After a slew of other calls, a quick perusal of the “To Do” list denotes that seven of the 11 items or tasks have been completed.

2:13--Time to eat that pizza that came out of the oven about two hours ago.

More phone calls keep Boucher from finishing his pizza in an ordinary amount of time. But Boucher is still as energized as that annoying pink bunny.

2:32--Boucher makes a call to locate a portable scoreboard to be used in the gymnasium. Have one, need two.

Neil calls to tell Boucher he has secured an off-site roller hockey rink in Hermosa in case they can’t locate a portable rink to be used at Dominguez Hills.

2:35--Boucher calls “Trina” to confirm the delivery time of the five Nissan cars and eight golf carts that were donated for the event.

2:49--A canopy tent was built with the opening in the wrong direction. Boucher tells Gordon.

3:20--Time to check voice mail messages again. This time there’s four.

“Oh, light day,” Boucher says. “So I guess I’m delegating effectively, huh?”

Halfway into hearing the first message, Boucher’s cell phone rings.

It’s good news: “Chuck” has found a portable scoreboard and it’s free.

3:25--Assistant Michelle (known as “The Wongster” to Boucher and other co-workers) calls. Boucher tells her he needs to find a volunteer with a credit card in order to book a limo for the Alkoholics.

With most rentals available only by credit card deposit, the plastic money of several volunteers were called into action for rentals.

3:35--Two trucks full of gear that were supposed to show up at 2 p.m. pull into the no-parking zone.

Truck drivers (who are tired volunteers) “Charles” and “Ruben,” with the help of another volunteer, began loading the trucks at the downtown storage space at 9:30 a.m.

After loading tons of bottled water, sport drinks, water coolers, banners, 14,000 T-shirts, Charles and Ruben are exhausted.

3:50--Gordon comes to the office to tell Boucher the tent set-up crew is locked out of the baseball field.

3:58--Unable to secure change for a $5 bill, Boucher palms $2 off of Ruben and heads to the vending machines in the gymnasium where he buys sodas for himself, Charles and Ruben.

4:12--Boucher helps Charles and Ruben unload.

“This place will be flooded with volunteers tomorrow . . . when everything is done,” Ruben cracks.

4:34--Still unloading trucks, Gordon returns to triple-check proposed sites of shade tents.

4:50--Assistant Michelle calls to tell Boucher the vendor checks have been signed.

6:00--Boucher makes more calls while awaiting the arrival of another truck which is carrying 350 signs and banners.

Boucher learns that the truck, scheduled to leave West L.A. at 4, didn’t leave until about 6.

8ish--Truck with signs arrive. Boucher helps unload and then sorts the signs.

8:30--Boucher heads for home in Sherman Oaks where his wife and 2 1/2-year-old daughter await his arrival.

A 45-minute drive gets Boucher in the mood for his next task--laundry. Boucher does two loads and packs his bags for the weekend.

10:30--Straight to bed. Skipped dinner.

“[Today] was nothing,” Boucher said. “I’ve never had a day like this two days before the games. It must mean we’re well organized.”