Prep Review : Lynwood Teen-agers Find New World at Ocean View--and They Like It

Ricky Butler and Desi Hazely would like to be treated the same as the other 650 sophomores in Ocean View High School at Huntington Beach.

No controversy, no curiosity, no special attention, please.

The trouble is, it’s difficult to overlook a pair of 10th graders who must duck in order to clear doorways.

Unlike Butler and Hazely, the run-of-the-mill sophomore boy doesn’t come equipped with a wing-span broader than the national bird’s, and the ability to dunk a basketball before he’s old enough to drive a car.

Plus, there is another vital difference. Butler and Hazely are the only Ocean View students who live with Seahawk basketball Coach Jim Harris.

Although the players have lived with Harris and his family at El Toro for six months, they came to the school last year under different circumstances.

Butler and Hazely originally left their parents’ homes in the southeast Los Angeles city of Lynwood under the care of a guardian, Laurant Brown, a La Canada landscape architect who met the boys while coaching his son’s youth basketball team.

With the permission of Butler’s and Hazely’s parents, Brown moved the boys and his son to Ocean View, which has produced a number of college basketball players.

By the end of the year, however, Brown changed his mind and decided to return to La Crescenta, where his 5-foot 9-inch son, Derek, would have a better opportunity to play basketball. He has since moved his son to Muir High.

But Butler and Hazely wanted to stay at Ocean View instead of returning to Lynwood. They turned to their coach for help.

What do you do when two towering teen-agers appear on your doorstep with their size-15 sneakers--and appetites of similar proportions?

“One coach said I should have just told them to go home (to Lynwood),” Harris said. “But how could you do that to a human being you have become close to, and who has asked for your help?”

Several Ocean View parents offered to take the boys temporarily. But a three-year commitment to rear two teen-agers is a tall order.

“There was one place I knew for sure that they would get a stable home environment and all the help they needed,” Harris said. “And that was my house.”

So, Harris’ solution was to add them to his six-member family home.

“My Dad’s teams have always felt like family,” said Harris’ 12-year-old daughter, Kathryn, who is sharing a room with sister Kristi, 13, to make room for the players. “This time it feels even more like they’re a part of us.”

Hazely’s and Butler’s parents think the unorthodox arrangement is something akin to sending their children to a boarding school with a solid reputation. Since the boys wanted to go and it seemed to be in their best academic and athletic interests, their parents didn’t object.

“I didn’t care for the idea at all at first,” Doris Butler said. “Later, I realized it was really what he wanted, so I said it was up to him. He’s the type of person that if there’s something he really wants, he really wants it.

“He didn’t do too good in junior high school, and I felt he would get a better education there than he would at Lynwood. . . . I really miss him a lot. But he’s a very responsible 16-year-old. He calls every other day, sometimes twice a day.”

Butler’s sister, Michelle, 14, a center on Lynwood’s girls junior varsity, said, “We get along real good, but I don’t really miss him because when he comes home, it’s just like he’s never been gone.”

Butler and Hazely visit their families every weekend, but they say they are happy in Huntington Beach.

“There are a lot less gangs here and everything’s more organized,” Hazely said. “I still have a lot of good friends in Lynwood, but this is a better environment altogether. I really like the people here. They’re really friendly.

“I was telling Ricky that it already seems like we’ve been here for years. I’m happy where I am. It’s a lot like home.”

Butler: “I always wanted to stay here. Lynwood is better than a ghetto, but not as good as Huntington Beach. I feel a lot safer here.”

Though Butler and Hazely’s transfer was legal, some coaches have taken a dim view of the circumstances that brought them to Ocean View. Some have implied they are an illustration of the CIF’s loose rules on residency and eligibility.

“Basically, my only gripe is that the players should not have been there in the first place,” Marina Coach Steve Popovich said. “It’s not a violation of any rules, but it’s a violation of ethics.”

Lynwood basketball Coach Bill Notley said Butler and Hazely, who left before ever playing for him, are taller than any of the players on his varsity this year.

“Would these kids be living with him if they were 5-5?” he said. “I’m not saying it may not be best for them. If the kids love it there and everyone’s happy, how can I knock it? But as far as I’m concerned, it was illegal. I’m bitter about it, and I don’t know anyone else who wouldn’t be.

“What’s to stop a coach from going up to Los Angeles and adopting himself a player?”

Harris, who has established a reputation of running a first-rate program in his nine years at Ocean View, said he has been hurt by the accusations.

“The real point is that if they were 5-foot-1, I might still be doing this because I have done similar things in the past,” he said.

“They think I did this to win, but that has never been the primary objective in our program. I have to decide to do what I think is right and go ahead with it, regardless of criticism. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t think much of myself as a person.”

One point nobody disagrees with is that the boys play basketball with great skill, especially for sophomores competing on the Sunset League’s first-place team. Ocean View (21-3) is seeded second the Southern Section 5-A basketball tournaments, which will begin this week.

Butler, a starting center and forward who averages 13 points and 11 rebounds a game, already is considered among Orange County’s most talented players.

Hazely began as one of the varsity’s youngest and most inexperienced players after averaging 15 points and 12 rebounds a game as a forward on last year’s sophomore team. But over the course of the season, he has earned his place among the Seahawks’ top seven players, coming off the bench to play about two quarters a game recently.

But Harris says the best argument for Butler and Hazely’s decision to attend Ocean View is being demonstrated off the court. They are averaging between a C+ and a B- grade point average, Harris said.

Admittedly, a student with a 2.6 grade point average is not valedictorian material, but for Butler and Hazely it represents a victory. It is their best grades in years, Harris said, and offers them the prospect a college basketball scholarship. Last semester, Hazely got the second-highest grade in a science class he had failed last year. “The teacher bought him a pizza for that,” Harris said.

“Last year, the teachers didn’t say much to us,” Butler said. “They didn’t show too much interest. But now that we’re studying a lot more, they’re helping us a lot.

“The other day, I was walking through the hall and the principal stopped me, and said he had heard I had improved my grades. It made me feel good to know I’m improving and he knows about it.”

The boys attribute some of their successes this fall to the Harris family, whom they call “great people.” Around the Harris household, the routine for all six children is well-structured and fairly strict.

“Before they came, we told them they’re going to be getting up early, off to school, going to practice, coming home, eating, doing homework and then to bed,” Harris’ wife Sandi said. “That’s our kids’ lives. We told them there wouldn’t be much of a social aspect to it.

“Our kids get excellent grades because they’re disciplined to it, and the boys took to that immediately. There’s a pride of achievement we’ve seen, not just on the basketball court. It’s like another world has opened up for them.”

Prep Notes

Eight Orange County players have been selected to play in the Shrine All-Star football game scheduled for July 27 at East Los Angeles College. Center Ken Felix (Capistrano Valley), defensive end Randy Sheets (Western), tackle Mike Beech (Newport Harbor), tackle Chuck Kunsaitis (El Toro), tackle Tom Holler (La Quinta), guard Don Miller (Esperanza), fullback Derrick Gachett (Esperanza) and defensive end Dan Owens (La Habra) have been selected to play in the game. . . . Los Angeles Rams special teams Coach Gil Haskell and Cal State Fullerton’s Gene Murphy head the list of speakers for the seventh Orange County Football Coaches Clinic on Saturday, Feb. 23, at Rams Park in Anaheim. The clinic, sponsored by Dr. Pepper, also will feature Cal State Long Beach’s Mike Sheppard, Titan secondary coach Steve Hall and Esperanza’s Pete Yoder. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and clinic is free to all junior high and high school coaches. . . . Irvine quarterback Jeff Bielman turned down a football scholarship from Fresno State in order to play football and baseball at Saddleback College. . . . Servite quarterback Eric Buechele visited Fresno State over the weekend. . . . Eric Samuelson, the former Times All-County basketball player who led Sonora to two straight Southern Section 3-A championship games, has withdrawn from Cal State Long Beach and enrolled at Fullerton College. . . . Correction: Tustin quarterback Pat Heggarty did not sign a letter of intent to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as reported in The Times, according to Tiller Coach Marijon Ancich. . . . They didn’t make the playoffs, but that isn’t the only measure of success for the seniors on the Loara basketball team--Bobby West, Damian Porreca, Brian Shinoda, and Joe Ferrentino. The Saxons won only one game in the 1982-83 and ‘83-84 seasons. Under the direction this season of Brian Daly, the team’s fourth head coach in as many years, the Saxons enjoyed a 360% improvement in their winning percentage. Loara won 9 of 22 games, came within four or fewer points of beating three of the Empire League’s top teams, and finished in fifth place among the eight teams. . . . Scholarship Plus, a Santa Ana-based counseling service for student-athletes with scholarship potential, will conduct a complimentary seminar for high school juniors and seniors and their parents at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday in the faculty cafeteria of Fountain Valley High. The topics of discussion will include the national letter of intent, NCAA rules and regulations, athletic scholarships and collegiate recruiting practices.