Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? : Ursula Lovely Says She Was Kicked Off Track Team, but Coach Says She Quit

For Ursula Lovely of Kennedy High School, the sky always was the limit.

For three days last season, Lovely was the best girl high jumper in Orange County history, having cleared 5 feet, 11 inches.

Although Anaheim’s Yleana Carrasco, who is a year older, increased the county record by an inch in her next meet, Lovely’s leap still stands as the county’s second best jump ever--remarkable for a sophomore.

But it now appears that Lovely has been grounded, her wings clipped by a discipline-minded coach who disapproved of her strong will.

As it stands, Lovely will jump no more, at least not for Kennedy High School, where she set the school record two years ago as a freshman.

The details of Lovely’s last practice Tuesday are a matter of debate. Pat Ward, first-year head track and field coach at Kennedy, says Lovely quit the team after a dispute with him Tuesday near the high jump pit. But Lovely says she was kicked off the team.

“It was Ursula’s decision to leave,” said Ward, who has coached a number of high school sports for 15 years. “And based on the severity of the problem we had, I think it’s best for all concerned we leave it the way it is.

“Based on her behavior, her open defiance and so forth (that afternoon), I would have been very hard-pressed to allow her to remain on the team.”

But Lovely and at least two other high jumpers in earshot, senior Lloyd Vidales and junior Jeff Hansell, say the responsibility for provoking a scene rests with their coach.

The high jumpers say that when Ward learned The Times was planning to feature Lovely in a newspaper article, he called Lovely aside and lost his temper, speaking to her disrespectfully, belittling her performance on the team and using a profanity.

“He’s the one who instigated the confrontation,” Hansell said. “I don’t see why he should determine who should be in the newspaper, because he doesn’t own it. If they wanted to write about her because she’s doing well, that wouldn’t hurt anybody.

“She deserves to be written up if anybody on this team does.

“I felt he was being unfair, so I started walking away. I didn’t want to get caught in his wrath and start defending her and get the whole high jump team kicked off the team.”

Vidales was kicked off the team for leaving practice 15 minutes early to give Lovely a ride home.

Lovely said Ward first suspended her and later ordered her to report to zero period, a 7 a.m. physical education running class for athletes dropped from teams--before she angrily replied that she would quit.

Zero period carries a stigma of punishment and failure, the athletes said. Those are terms that Lovely, also a basketball star, B-minus student and former trombone player in the school band, is unaccustomed to.

Her parents allege witnesses can confirm that Ward caused the confrontation and distorted the events in a written report to principal Warren Stephenson justifying Lovely’s dismissal.

Her parents are pursuing an appeal through the principal under school district guidelines.

“I basically want them to clear my name,” Lovely said.

“Coach Ward put everything on my shoulders (in his report) and blamed it all on me, and that’s not fair because it’s not the truth,” she said, adding that even if the appeal were granted, she wasn’t sure she would want to rejoin Ward’s team.

The dispute was triggered by the appearance of a Times photographer assigned to take pictures of Lovely.

Ward says his reaction stemmed from his wish to protect Lovely and act in her best interest by preventing all publicity that might put pressure on her. Ward believes she has not been able to perform to her previous level since an article about her appeared last year in another newspaper.

Before ordering the photographer off the field, Ward told him that Lovely had a “big head” and that since she had not been able to repeat the record-setting 5-11 jump this season, she did not deserve to be the subject of an article.

He then went up to Lovely and called her a “prima donna,” according to Lovely and the other jumpers. He also told her he would have the article killed.

“She took it from him--all this ‘You-aren’t-doing-well’ stuff, and that must have hurt her because she always tries hard and I know she wants to do well,” Hansell said.

In fact, Lovely has won 10 of the 12 events--hurdles, high jump or long jump--she has entered this season and has not come back from a meet without at least one first place.

Her early season jumps of 5-6, a level that disappointed her coach, are still higher than the old school record and equal to the height that placed her sixth in the state meet last season. She has never missed a practice or meet.

“It comes down to he expected a great deal from her because she had done so well last year,” Hansell said. “He expected her to pick up right where she left off and be the greatest in the world right off the bat, but it’s toward the end of the season when you start getting jumps that’ll set records.

“I don’t know what he wanted from her.”

Ward, who used the word ‘floundering’ to describe Lovely’s performance this season, did not return entry forms for her to compete in the prestigious Arcadia Invitational, where she had placed well the past two seasons, according to Kennedy’s former track coach, Dick Bailey of Magnolia. Bailey received a call from meet organizers asking why Lovely’s entry was missing.

Bailey, who spent two years developing Lovely into the premier high jumper of her grade in the Southern Section, called the situation very sad for Ursula. He said he feared she “was getting the short end of the stick.”

He said that Lovely was a “neat, fun girl,” but not immune to moodiness.

“There are certain people who are really talented athletes who have a certain amount of that moodiness or arrogance,” Bailey said. “I think that’s part of what makes them good, that extra drive. I always had a good relationship with her.”

Ward calls Lovely “a temperamental young lady.” Bailey said that Ward, his former assistant, had a temper problem.

If Ward acted hastily in banning Lovely from the team, she could pay a heavy price.

“Her career and future is on the line,” Bailey said. “I feel sorry for her.”

She had appeared to be a shoo-in for a college scholarship to the university of her choice before Tuesday; now her plans are clouded. Her parents are worried about Ward’s responses to her recruiting mail as well as her grade in track class.

“I may not have handled the situation properly, given the individual,” Ward said. “If I had it to do over, I’d do it differently, but it erupted into a situation that could only be handled one way.”

So now, Lovely spends her afternoons at home with the soap operas, barred from the high jump pit and denied her favorite activity. Her parents, Carl and Ursula, have missed only one of their daughter’s games, track meets or band performances in three years.

Hansell and Vidales said Lovely, who helped teach the boys on the team how to high jump and still can outjump them, will be missed for her encouragement and friendship. They said her presence was a positive factor on the team.

“I don’t know why something as little as some confrontation had to go to such an extreme (that she would be dismissed),” Hansell said. “He lost his cool, and she shouldn’t have to get the repercussions from that.”