Andres Sepulveda, the coach who helped Van Nuys High School win its first league baseball title in 34 years, says he has been dismissed and barred from ever coaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District again after alumni built an unauthorized batting cage on campus over the summer. He denies that a student was injured during the construction, though the district has alleged otherwise, and he has filed an appeal.
Sepulveda's account, laid out to the Los Angeles Times, describes the rapid unraveling of a program he took over in 2022. Van Nuys administration determined that alumni and other supporters built the batting cage during the summer without approval, according to Sepulveda, with alumni donating the money to fund the project. The field has been off limits for weeks, and the district began investigating last month, per the same account.
Sepulveda, a Van Nuys alumnus himself who now teaches P.E. at a local middle school, said LAUSD alleged a student was hurt during the cage's construction — an allegation he denies. He has appealed that finding, and the newspaper's report notes that LAUSD had not responded to a request for comment sent Friday.
A Program on the Rise, Then a Sudden Stop
The dismissal comes less than a year and a half after Van Nuys captured its first East Valley League championship in 34 years, beating Monroe High School 10-3 in May 2025 to cap a turnaround built under Sepulveda, according to The Mirror. That resurgence also brought alumni support to the program.
The batting cage dispute isn't isolated. Van Nuys' softball program is also being investigated over an unauthorized new fence and is now demolishing it, per Sepulveda's account. He says there is a lack of support for coaches trying to improve facilities, and both he and Van Nuys baseball parents are now worried about whether the school will even have a baseball season in 2027.
Don Drysdale's Shadow Over the Diamond
The stakes carry extra symbolic weight because of the field itself. In March 2026, Van Nuys formally dedicated its campus diamond as Don Drysdale Memorial Field and retired jersey No. 53 to honor the 1954 alumnus and Hall of Fame pitcher, according to Dodger Insider. Sepulveda spoke at that ceremony celebrating Drysdale's legacy, the outlet reported — making the current standoff over the same field especially fraught for a program that had only just begun reclaiming its place in Van Nuys history.
The clash reflects a broader legal reality LAUSD cannot ignore. The California Division of the State Architect says all public-school construction must comply with applicable codes, while districts retain responsibilities.
Not an Isolated Case Across LA Prep Sports
Van Nuys is far from the only City Section program under scrutiny this fall. Sun Valley Poly dismissed its recently hired baseball coach and is now looking for its fourth coach in a year's time, the Times reported, with columnist Eric Sondheimer separately posting that weeds were growing everywhere on the Poly campus. Sondheimer, the paper's longtime prep sports columnist honored seven times by the California Prep Sportswriters Assn. for best prep sports column, has chronicled much of this year's administrative churn across Southern California high school athletics.
At El Camino Real Charter High School, decorated head coach Josh Lienhard was placed on administrative leave in August during a third-party investigation into whether his CPR and first-aid certifications appeared in the Red Cross database, before being reinstated.
LAUSD's posture toward campus athletics has hardened elsewhere too. The district has previously issued disciplinary action against a coach who improved an unauthorized facility and has demolished at least one such unauthorized improvement before, per the Times' reporting. The CIF City Section this month also denied Narbonne High School's appeal to shorten a three-year postseason football ban tied to an LAUSD investigation into improper transfers and booster activity, as Hoodline reported. A South Gate family is suing LAUSD, while a lawsuit over a football death has alleged unsafe field conditions.
For now, Van Nuys' field sits idle, its softball fence coming down and its baseball coach appealing a decision he says has already ended his time in the district. Whether the program will field a team when the 2027 season arrives remains an open question for Sepulveda and the parents watching alongside him.
