Laguna High Divided Over Alleged Drug Use by Coach

At 2:45 a.m. on Sept. 20, a traffic officer stopped a car driven by former All-Pro football player Cedrick Hardman, who also happened to be the much-admired, winning football coach at Laguna Beach High School.

It was more than a routine arrest, because it would spark a moral dilemma for students and parents in the laid-back seaside community of Laguna Beach, where, of all things, football had arrived in a big way.

Hardman, 38, had been driving 55 m.p.h. in a 45-m.p.h. zone westbound on Laguna Canyon Road and had veered into the right shoulder, Laguna Beach Police Officer R. Raheuser reported later. When Raheuser stopped the car, Hardman fumbled in a briefcase for his driver’s license and the officer reported seeing a “clear plastic baggie, containing a white powdery substance.”

What followed after Hardman got out of the car could have passed for a lopsided football scrimmage.

Determined to Get Back

Raheuser, who is 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and Officer Debbie Chang, at 5-foot-1 and 100 pounds, vainly struggled to contain the 6-foot-3, 245-pound former defensive end, who was determined to get back into his car, according to the police report.

Although he was blasted in the face with Mace and temporarily blinded, Hardman “continued to stagger forward toward the driver’s side door . . . pushing, pulling and dragging Chang and myself,” Raheuser reported. “Each time a partial hold was placed on Hardman, he would merely swing his arms from our grasps.”

A third patrolman arrived, and the officers finally managed to subdue and handcuff the former football star.

It was an ignoble spectacle that has since divided the Laguna Beach school community and prompted a debate over whether Hardman is fit to coach high school athletes.

Hardman was charged with felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor resisting arrest. If he is convicted of the felony, school officials are required by state law to fire him, school Supt. Dennis Smith said.

But on Friday, South Orange County Municipal Judge Richard D. Hamilton ordered Hardman to enroll in a drug diversion program rather than face trial for the felony. If Hardman completes the program, the felony charge will be dropped.

“This has nothing to do with your job,” said Hamilton, a former member of the Laguna Beach Board of Education. “I don’t care what they do with you. That’s their decision.”

Many people, such as Jonathon Todd, Laguna Beach High School’s 17-year-old star fullback, await that decision. Some hope to influence it.

“He’s like a father to me,” Todd said. “He’s a great man. He made me a better football player and a better person. But he’s human. He makes mistakes.”

Whether Hardman should be allowed to return to work, Todd said, is “a rough question. It’s like asking (what should be done) if your father committed a crime. What should happen to him if he’s your father?”

Some in town are adamant that Hardman should be barred from coaching, even if he is not convicted of the felony. One woman has threatened to launch a recall of school board members if they don’t fire him.

Others are just as insistent that he be allowed to return and suggest that his alleged use of drugs will make him effective in urging youths to abstain.

Tired of Reading About It

Hardman declined to comment, saying only that “people who love me” have tired of reading about his problems.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Bickel said Friday that Hardman admitted to being a drug “user and abuser.” But Bickel had no quarrel with Hardman’s assignment to a rehabilitation program, which gives “people a chance.”

School board members last month suspended Hardman from his coaching duties without pay, although they were not required to. They said they will decide on his permanent status after the criminal matters are resolved.

But the diversion program can last six months to two years, and if he violates its rules at any time, he can be tried on the felony charge.

Also, Hardman still faces the misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. Chang, who suffered pulled shoulder muscles, missed a few days of work and was placed on light duty, a department spokesman said.

On Probation

Moreover, Hardman faces a hearing to determine whether the charges violate his probation. At the time of his arrest, Hardman was on probation for four traffic citations for driving without a license and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.

An All-Pro defensive end in 1971 and 1975 with the San Francisco 49ers, who drafted him No. 1 in 1970, Hardman ended his National Football League playing career in 1981 with the Oakland Raiders.

After working as a volunteer assistant coach at Laguna Beach High, Hardman was hired as head coach in 1985 amid complaints that the traditional procedure of reviewing candidates by a committee (composed of the high school principal, athletic director, a parent and a student) had not been followed. The job pays an annual $1,700 stipend and involves about two to three hours of work a day, five months a year, a school official said.

Resigned From Committee

When Hardman was hired, Laguna High art teacher Hal Akins resigned from the Impact committee, a school and community group to combat drug abuse, because of Hardman’s marijuana arrest.

Akins said he felt a different standard had been applied to Hardman than would have been applied to a teacher. However, Akins concedes that the outpouring of support expressed for Hardman by his football players “says there are some good things there too” about Hardman’s character.

“To an extent, it’s to their credit that they are supporting him,” Akins said. “Any coach would like to have his team respect him and rally to him. That doesn’t necessarily say I agree with his life style, which I don’t. I don’t believe in drug use in any way, shape or form.”

Although Laguna Beach football teams have had winning and even championship seasons, the team this year is shaping up as one of the school’s best. Many credit Hardman’s coaching. Before he left, his team had won two and lost none. Since then, the Artists have won four more and lost but one.

Ellen Mahoney, a member of the football team’s booster club, and whose son Sean, 17, is a team co-captain, is among Hardman’s staunchest supporters.

“Air traffic controllers, airline pilots, physicians, entertainers, other sports celebrities who have had other drug problems . . . go to diversion programs and are deemed recovering and go about their business,” Mahoney said. “I think that’s what should be done in this case. That sends a message to any other teachers that if they have a problem it is OK to come forth and go to a diversion program. They aren’t going to be ostracized and . . . not allowed to participate in society again.”

Angry He Wasn’t Fired

But parent Jennifer Yelland has talked of recalling school board members if they allow Hardman to return. She is also angry that Hardman was not summarily fired after his arrest.

“As little as five years ago, children (were) coming to classes literally bombed out of their minds” on drugs, said Yelland, who was involved with the Impact committee.

After the adoption of new, tougher guidelines for dealing with drug abuse on campus, Yelland said, “we started the year off with a bang and everybody was joining forces. Then this coach incident. We had no idea the board would take the stand it has taken.

“Even if they don’t reinstate the coach, there is so much anger and disappointment there may be a recall anyway.”

What particularly disturbs Yelland, and some other parents interviewed, is that the cocaine possession charge is Hardman’s second drug offense. In March, 1985, Hardman pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, according to prosecutor Bickel.

Yet Another Chance

Yelland said it is difficult to explain to teen-agers why Hardman should be afforded yet another chance.

“Had it been a janitor or a science teacher,” Yelland said, “I have a feeling it would have been approached a little differently.”

But Bruce Hopping, a longtime Laguna Beach resident whose private, nonprofit foundation Kalos Kagathos promotes youth sports participation, is concerned that there is “a furor and hysteria sweeping the nation . . . about drug abuse, and we’re picking it up in this community.”

Hopping said he believes that some residents may be afraid to express support for Hardman.

“I’m afraid what people are thinking is if they support Hardman they are supporting drug abuse,” Hopping said.

Interim football coach Lloyd Cotton has no problem voicing his support, although he says he has had to help the team’s players understand “that Ced had made a poor choice and there are consequences for the choices we make.”

“They were hurt, shocked, disappointed, confused,” Cotton said. “They are still coming to grips with it. We’re suffering consequences too.

“The kids who didn’t want to listen to him (Hardman) are going to have a harder time listening to him” as a result of the arrest, Cotton said. “But the kids who do want to listen to him still believe in him.

“I guess 75% will stay with him and believe in him. How he acts when he gets back will (determine) what the other 25% do.”

And the odds that Hardman will be back, Cotton said, are “80-20. . . . He’s had too much of a positive effect on those kids.”

“It might seem kind of funny right now,” Cotton said, “but (Hardman) taught the basic things: don’t use drugs, don’t stay out late at night and don’t drink . . . things a lot of them didn’t get at home.”

Nevertheless, former Laguna High football coach and athletic director Walter Hamera, an English teacher at the school, said anyone who has used drugs should be barred from coaching youths, even if “rehabilitated.”

‘Certain Standards’

“I think there are certain standards that have to be met in dealing with young people . . . who look up to a coach,” Hamera said. “If they are not met, they should not coach.” Tim Miller, Laguna Beach police community services officer and a member of the Impact committee, agrees.

“Somebody should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated,” he said. “However, Mr. Hardman . . . twice has violated a trust that he had with our young people.

“I seriously do not feel Mr. Hardman’s life will be ruined by this,” Miller said. “By being rehabilitated, his life will be better. Even if he loses his job, sometimes people learn the hard way. Just because something’s hard, it isn’t bad. Maybe the only way he’s really going to learn about what’s happened in his life, is by him having this be difficult.”

Although school board members declined to discuss details of the Hardman case, they stressed that the matter is being handled as it would be for any employee.

Sons on the Team

“I think all school employees should be subject to the same jurisdiction and value system,” said Trustee Charlene Ragatz, whose son plays on the team.

Two other trustees, Janet S. Vickers and Susan Mas, also have sons on the team. Vickers and Ragatz said that connection absolutely will not influence their decisions. Mas could not be reached for comment.

An out-of-towner also had an opinion on the Hardman case. Former National Football League coach George Allen, now chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness in Sports, has known Hardman since his playing days.

“I happen to be the first coach in NFL history to have a drug (prevention) presentation and slide lecture, in 1966,” Allen said. If Hardman successfully completes the rehabilitation program, Allen said, “he should be allowed to coach or whatever he wants to do again.

“Players and coaches and individuals who have suffered a little bit have learned the hard way, are better because of it, I’d say 80% of the time. If I had a staff and I needed a defensive coach, I wouldn’t hesitate to hire him.”

Hardman was released Friday from a residential drug rehabilitation program at South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, where he had enrolled voluntarily four days after his September arrest, his attorney, Ronald P. Kreber, said. He was to enroll in the new program immediately.

Evenly Divided

The Rev. Jerry Tankersley of Laguna Beach Presbyterian Church, one of the largest churches in Laguna Beach, has “heard quite a bit of conversation around the community” about the Hardman controversy and that opinion appears to be “fairly evenly divided.”

“There’s a great concern about the use of drugs in Laguna Beach and among students and role models like Cedrick,” he said. “On the other hand, there’s a lot of great empathy for Cedrick and we want to help . . . to be a community of grace. If I’m going to err, I’d rather err on the side of grace.”