Relationship Between Harris, Other Sunset Coaches Is Strained

Traditionally, the Sunset League basketball circle was a tight one. Coaches fraternized after games and after scouting other teams at preseason tournaments. They worked together as counselors at a summer camp in Westminster.

Also, the players from Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Marina, Ocean View and Westminster high schools were well acquainted. Many had played against each other since elementary school, and many were teammates on youth traveling all-star squads.

“We tried like hell to beat each other, but when the game was over, we were friends,� said Roy Miller, Huntington Beach coach. “The camaraderie was part of the game.�

But a crack seems to have formed in the circle.

Last year, Jim Harris, Ocean View coach, was accused in a Huntington Beach Union High School District investigation of using undue influence (a violation of CIF Rule 510) to retain two transfers from Lynwood High School--Ricky Butler and Desi Hazely.

The investigation also alleged that Harris tried to recruit several players, including Butler and Hazely, in the past.

Harris denied the recruiting allegations, but the league’s other coaches believe Harris is not completely innocent.

And that has strained their relationship to the point that some coaches won’t talk with Harris.

“The whole atmosphere surrounding this situation has been harmful,� said Fountain Valley Coach Dave Brown, who hired Harris as a freshman coach in 1974. “There is a lot of tension. There is a distinct feeling that one of the programs in the league is not playing by the same set of rules the others are playing by.�

As a result of the district investigation, Ocean View Principal John Myers ordered the team to forfeit its 24 victories and the Sunset League title it had won during the 1984-85 season. Also, Harris was not hired to coach in the 1985-86 season, but Myers reinstated the coach for this season after Harris signed an admission of guilt last May.

After Harris was reinstated, the coaches joined in an effort to force further sanctions upon Ocean View. Last June, they sent a grievance letter to the Southern Section Executive Committee urging additional sanctions. The letter was signed by Miller, Brown, Popovich, Jon Borchert of Edison and Dick Katz of Westminster.

After reviewing the situation, the executive committee members voted to impose further penalties, declaring the Seahawks ineligible for this season’s 5-A playoffs.

“I believe that (letter) was a giant response to the Edison decision, when they were not allowed to participate in the playoffs,� Harris said. “Edison forfeits games and doesn’t go the playoffs, but we forfeit games and go to the playoffs. The other thing was that some of the coaches never liked the kids (Butler and Hazely) being in our school.�

Last season, Edison was forced to forfeit five league games before the playoffs for using an ineligible player. That eliminated the Chargers from the tournament. However, Ocean View advanced to the 5-A final, where it lost to Mater Dei. Southern Section officials later forced Ocean View to return the runner-up trophy.

The Sunset League coaches say they are particularly angry over the transfers of Butler and Hazely, who came to Ocean View with guardian Laurant Brown in 1983. Though the transfer was ruled legal, the coaches claim it was unethical.

“I never liked it from the start,� Popovich said. “If they would have moved here with their families, that’s OK. But this whole idea of having guardians stinks. That’s not what high school athletics is all about.�

Brown, a landscape architect now living in Altadena, disagreed. “Is it unethical that kids have moved to Mission Viejo to swim?� he said. “I know people don’t like it. A man will move to get a better job or a person will take his child to a better school because they have a great music program or computer program.

“So I take these boys, who are serious about playing college basketball, to Ocean View. I don’t feel it’s unethical.�

But Dave Brown, Harris’ one-time close friend, isn’t so sure.

“Jim keeps saying he’s doing it for the kids,� Brown said. “That may be true, but who’s to say they wouldn’t be just as well off going to the school that they’re supposed to be attending?�