DIRTY HARRY : Some Say He Has a ‘Negative Image,’ and Some Say He’s Just Intense, but Most People Would Agree That Canyon High Football Coach Harry Welch Is a Winner

The first thing you notice about Harry Welch, football coach at Canyon High, is that he doesn’t particularly look like a coach away from the football field.

You’d never mistake him for, say, Woody Hayes. He doesn’t have Bud Grant’s face of granite. Or Joe Paterno’s nose.

He looks like an accountant. Somebody you would go to with a tax problem.

Except for his eyes. He’s got Bear Bryant’s eyes. They look like they’re from the Internal Revenue Service, like they would just as soon scare as look. Especially if you miss a block or a tackle.

Or, horrors, if you fumble . . .

“Oh, no, no, no, no,” Welch screamed during practice the other day, after one of his running backs fumbled during a drill. The practice field went silent as Welch blew his whistle, waved his arms and bellowed:

“Wait a second. Hold it. You’ve only been with us two weeks, but we don’t do that. The ball is more important than you are. If you don’t learn that, you’ll never play running back for us. Do you understand?”

The youth, who by this time looked as if he wanted the mountain behind the practice field to slide down on top of him, nodded. Come what may, he would never fumble in the presence of Harry Welch again.

All of which is the second thing you notice about Welch. On the football field, he looks either like a wild man or one of the best motivators in high school football.

“Before I came here,” said Canyon assistant coach Rick Kruska, who had previously assisted at neighboring Hart and Saugus, “someone came up to me and said, ‘Uh, wait until you have to coach with that one-eyed, green-eyed monster.’

“It’s because Harry’s so intense. He’s so into the game--he’ll just explode. Then he calms down. Then he explodes again.

“People who see that, view it in a bad way.”

There was, for instance, the time last year during the playoffs when Canyon nose guard Joe Zacharia got into a scuffle with an opposing player. Welch marched onto the field, grabbed Zacharia by the face mask and pulled him off the field.

Another time, according to Cowboy linebacker Randy Austin, Welch was so upset at his team that he kicked a trash can that landed on assistant coach Brian Stiman. “His veins were popping out of his head,” Austin said. “He was mad because he didn’t think we were playing like we should.”

During practice, Welch is quick to single out his players--for praise and for criticism. If he is pleased, he pats them on the fanny. If he’s not, he grabs a player, presses his nose against his face mask and lets him know, in no uncertain terms, that the coach is upset.

“I may not always see things the way other people see them,” Welch said. “My style is abrasive to some. I am so involved with what I’m doing that other people think, ‘Wait a minute, it’s just a sport.’

“This may be just high school to some people, but every game is as important to me as every one of (Los Angeles Rams Coach) John Robinson’s games is important to him.”

Added Kruska: “There’s no doubt he has a negative image with some people. But he’s always won. At every level.”

Welch broke into coaching as an assistant at Crespi while attending college at Cal State Northridge. He stayed at Crespi until 1970, when he began teaching at Canyon. He coached the sophomore team at Canyon in 1971. A year later, he went back to coach quarterbacks at Crespi. From 1974 to 1978, Welch was an assistant at Valley College. He returned to Canyon as sophomore coach in 1980. Two years later, he became Canyon’s coach.

There was some controversy when Welch was named the new coach. From 1979 to 1981, Coach Tony Fadale had guided the Cowboys to an 18-12 record.

“The person who was head coach was asked to resign,” Welch said. “There was some conflict--in house--with the program. I was not involved in the program.

“When he was asked to resign, a lot of people resented whoever followed him. That person was me. He was crushed.”

In Welch’s first year as coach the Cowboys won the Golden League. In his second year, the Cowboys finished 13-1, winning the Southern Section Northwestern Conference title. Last year, Welch’s team completed a 14-0 season, again winning the Northwestern Conference Championship.

Canyon has not lost a game since early in the 1983 season, compiling 28 straight victories. This year, the team is 4-0.

What’s going on out there?

Even those who don’t like Welch, admit that he is, as one Hart fan put it, “One helluva coach.”

Said Steve Butler, former coach at Crespi and Valley College, with whom Welch worked as an assistant before coming to Canyon: “He’s a perfectionist. He demands it. He is a taskmaster. His players play the way he wants them to play.

“Harry tests his players’ character. The strong players survive--the weak ones don’t stay with him. He’s so demanding, if you weren’t strong enough to take it, you won’t be around.”

In fact, Canyon coaches admit, those who can’t handle Harry’s program are out.

“We probably have the highest percentage of players who quit,” said Stiman. “And, to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t want to play for us, we work so hard. But the players who stay with it get the job done.”

During the season, Welch’s players practice four to five hours each day after school. “And if someone messes up,” Austin said, “we do it over and over until we have it down. If one person messes up, we do it over.”

On Monday, after practice was over, Welch had his team run 22 30-yard sprints. One for each mess-up during practice.

In the off-season, Welch hardly lets up. From January to June, his players are expected to run and lift weights in a conditioning program.

Said Odis McKinney, formerly of the Los Angeles Raiders, who was coached by Welch at Valley College: “We used to call him the Vince Lombardi of the Valley. Man that guy was into conditioning. I worked harder under Welch than I worked with the Raiders.”

Another key to Welch’s success, Butler said, is his ability to motivate his players.

“Of all the coaches I’ve worked with, he is the best at getting the job done the way he wants it done. He gets the most from his players. They execute for him.”

“He plays a mental game,” said Canyon team manager Toby Beauer. “He expects his players to be as committed as he is.

“He tells them to be at practice even if they are sick. He says it helps the whole team.”

On Tuesday, Welch had three players at practice who did not attend classes that day due to illness. “If the principal knew about this, he’d be real mad at me,” Welch told a visitor.

Said one of the three, linebacker/running back Cary Caulfield: “He expects it. . . . He pushes us farther than we want to be pushed. That’s his key to success.”

A week ago, when Canyon played Notre Dame, Cowboy wide receiver Chad Ziegler had the flu, but he played anyway.

“We had him on the couch (in Welch’s office) before the game,” Beauer said. “We wrapped him up with jackets and fed him liquids. After the game, we brought him back in and wrapped him up again. We tried to get his fever down, then we took him home.”

When asked about the incident, Ziegler shrugged his shoulders and said, “You have to play. You don’t want to be sitting out.”

Even though Welch has had phenomenal success at Canyon, he is quick to point out that he’s done it without phenomenal talent. This year, according to the coach, the Cowboy offensive line averages about 170 pounds per man.

“Our kids wouldn’t even make Banning’s team, but I’ll tell you, we can play with Banning. We can play with Carson.”

Of Welch’s two Northwestern Conference Championship teams, only one player has gone on to play major college football. Brent Parkinson, an offensive lineman, is at USC. According to Canyon coaches, no other player was even considered.

This year, there will be another. Austin is being recruited by USC, UCLA, Washington and Brigham Young, among others. The senior linebacker will decide after the season.

Still, Austin and Parkinson are exceptions.

Notably, Canyon doesn’t use some newfangled offensive scheme to make up for its lack of talent. It uses a basic I-formation.

“Other teams know what we’re going to do against them. Crespi (Canyon’s opponent tonight) knows what we’re going to do,” Welch said. “We have no secrets. We don’t have any trick plays. It is mostly boring football.”

Although Canyon’s offense centers on tailback Lance Cross, the Cowboys certainly don’t hesitate to air it out. Last week against Notre Dame, Welch called for passes nearly 50% of the time.

One oddity in Welch’s offensive thinking is that he rarely calls for a punt. He says he doesn’t believe in it.

“If you punt, one good thing can happen,” he said, “You get off a long punt with no return. But, two bad things can happen. They could run it back, or they could block it.

“I like the kids to feel they have all four downs to get the first down. And they know they can.”

Said Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb: “I’ve seen his teams get behind, and they don’t panic. They seem to have a lot of confidence. They know, even if they get behind, they’ll find a way to win. They have a winning attitude.”

Finally, when pressed to explain his success, Welch squirms and looks humble and passes the credit around.

But 28 straight wins?

“Well, I try to do the best I can,” he said. “I told myself many years ago, ‘For yourself, never have a bad practice.’ I try to never have a bad day. I never want to allow myself that.”

Certainly, he lets his players know that they, too, are allowed no such luxury.

Canyon’s Win Streak

YEAR OPPONENT SCORE 1983 Dominguez 34-0 Antelope Valley 14-6 Palmdale 21-7 Saugus 52-13 Burroughs (Ridge.) 33-20 Quartz Hill 40-21 Blair 41-20 Mary Star 14-7 Monrovia 27-25 Bishop Mont. 40-24 1984 Hart 21-6 St. Genevieve 46-7 Thousand Oaks 19-14 Notre Dame 20-7 Crespi 46-0 Palmdale 47-3 Saugus 35-6 Burroughs (Ridge.) 21-0 Quartz Hill 28-6 Antelope Valley 26-14 St. Joseph 8-7 St. Bernard 19-9 Atascadero 27-6 Santa Maria 33-6 1985 Hart 6-3 La Canada 35-9 Thousand Oaks 21-0 Notre Dame 21-14