Tough fund-raising: When Mission College recently eliminated...

Tough fund-raising: When Mission College recently eliminated its athletic programs because of a lack of funding, men’s soccer coach Adolfo Perez began thinking of ways to keep his team alive.

Perez, who coaches several youth club teams, said he estimated his team’s yearly expenses at about $7,000 and felt he could have raised the money from parents of his club players.

Former Mission Athletic Director John Klitsner said the cost of supporting the soccer team was about $28,000 a year and that his own fund-raising efforts went nowhere.

“People called and said they would raise the money and that was the last we heard from them,” Klitsner said. “We were the only junior college men’s team in the Valley. [The players and Perez] were dedicated and loyal and you can’t do anything for them now. It hurts.”

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Please stay home: Jelani Janisse, the former Kennedy High basketball player bound for Kansas after playing the past two seasons at L.A. City College, credits his parents’ support for his steady improvement.

That includes agreeing to keep their distance.

Janisse said he asked his mother, Deirdre, and stepfather, Willie Williams, to stay home after L.A. City lost a few homes games last season with the couple in attendance.

“My mom and dad are my biggest supporters, but I didn’t play well when they came [to games],” said Janisse, a 6-foot-3 point guard who led L.A. City to the state championship. “When they didn’t show, we’d blow out the other team. After they watched us lose a couple times, I told them I’d bring home tapes for them to watch.”

In that regard, Janisse says playing at Kansas is an ideal situation.

“They can watch me play on TV,” he said.