Hardman Returns to Laguna but as Volunteer, Not Coach

Former All-Pro football player Cedrick W. Hardman, who had been head coach of the Laguna Beach High School football team until suspended after a cocaine possession arrest last month, returned to his players Wednesday afternoon as a “volunteer,” not a “coach.”

As he walked onto the school’s practice field, football players welcomed him back with enthusiastic applause.

Earlier, in the parking lot of the school district headquarters, where he had met with district administrators, Hardman had seemed dejected.

“You’re not clear on (how things stand)?” he told a reporter. “I’m not either. A lot’s been said; a lot’s been done. It’s time now just to wait and see.”

About 15 hours earlier, after an emotional public hearing, the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education voted 4 to 1 to continue Hardman’s suspension without pay but to allow him to attend practices and assist football coaches on a volunteer basis. The action banned Hardman, 38, from participating as a coach in games and from communicating with players and coaches on the field. However, Hardman is not precluded from attending games.

Trustee Susan Mas, who read the motion that allowed Hardman to return to the practice field, said the board majority was trying to help in Hardman’s “rehabilitation.”

A doctor treating Hardman for his cocaine abuse said it is important for people like Hardman to have “some kind of meaningful activity that they were successful in before,” Mas said. “But we want to make it real clear that we don’t condone these activities.”

But Trustee Harry Bithell said he voted against the measure because he “just didn’t feel comfortable” in view of the charges of resisting arrest and violation of probation that are still pending against Hardman.

“I don’t feel we could reinstate him at this time, and I feel his volunteer work is essentially reinstatement, no matter what we might say,” Bithell said.

Hardman was hired in 1985 as the team’s head coach after having done some volunteer coaching. His contract paid him a $1,700-a-year stipend for two to three hours of work a day for about five months a year. He had no other school duties.

In the predawn hours of Sept. 20, Hardman was arrested for possession of 5.5 grams of cocaine and for struggling with the two Laguna Beach police officers who tried to arrest him. In reaction to the arrest, the school board placed him on suspension without pay pending the outcome of the charges.

Last week Hardman was ordered by a Municipal Court judge to enroll in a drug rehabilitation program. The judge said he would suspend prosecution of the cocaine charge if Hardman performs satisfactorily.

But a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest remains, along with a charge of probation violations from earlier incidents involving driving with a suspended driver’s license and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday, the board continued Hardman’s suspension without pay until the end of his contract--Aug. 15, 1987--but voted to reinstate him upon “successful participation in the drug diversion program,” “compliance with random drug testing requirements as dictated by the drug diversion program” and “clearance of all pending criminal charges.”

Mas said in an interview Wednesday that by “clearance” of the charges, the board meant disposing of the charges in one way or another. If he is found guilty, she said, the board’s reaction “will be evaluated when we evaluate the situation on Aug. 15.”

The board also voted to provide Hardman “the opportunity to participate in service to the district on a voluntary basis during the week. Mr. Hardman may not participate in any official school or district events.”

District Supt. Dennis M. Smith said that “any violation of the diversion program would be immediate dismissal” of Hardman.

Smith conferred with Hardman just before he returned to the practice field Wednesday. The superintendent said afterward that he had met with the school’s coaching staff, including interim head coach Lloyd Cotton “and we clarified the roles. Coach Cotton is the head coach . . . and Mr. Hardman is not to assume the role of head coach or assistant coach.”

Cotton may use Hardman “however he may be able to assist,” Smith said, “. . . probably more in skill instruction areas for defense.” Hardman was an All-Pro defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers and later played for the Oakland Raiders.

‘Matter of Degree’

Smith conceded that Hardman could, as a volunteer, continue to act, in effect, as the head coach. “Hardman could be the de facto coach if he was sitting in his living room, for that matter,” Smith said. “It’s just a matter of degree, I suppose.”

But Smith emphasized that Hardman is “not a head coach. He’s not an assistant coach. He’s a volunteer. If he’s at a football game, he must remain in the stands. . . . Anybody may attend our football games. I communicated to him and the coaches that he is not to communicate to the players or the coaches on the football field and not to be in the press box.”

The Laguna team lost its first game of the season Friday to Costa Mesa. It now has a 6-1 record.

Hardman did not attend Tuesday night’s board meeting, during which most of the comment from the packed audience was in Hardman’s favor.

“I have a lot of compassion and appreciation for the people who supported me and a lot of compassion for those who didn’t,” Hardman said Wednesday.

But, he added, “the sooner it dies, the better off I’ll be.”

It seemed unlikely, however, that the controversy would die very soon. As part of the board’s action, the board asked administrators to propose “an employee assistance program, with preventive and rehabilitation components” for employees who have drug problems.

Jennifer Yelland, a parent who quit the school district’s anti-drug program, Impact, in protest against the board’s suspension rather than dismissal of Hardman last month, had threatened a recall if Hardman was reinstated. She was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Officer ‘Disappointed’

Tim Miller, the Laguna Beach Police Department’s liaison with Impact, said he was not surprised by the board’s action but was “disappointed.”

“It’s going to make it hard to keep the people interested in continuing their drug prevention efforts who have been involved in the school district--parents, teachers and administrators,” Miller said.

The board’s decision “put a big damper” on the anti-drug program planned Wednesday at Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach, Miller said.

Thurston Principal Ann Becker said the anti-drug ceremony was held as planned. Her staff, she said, is particularly concerned about the drug issue because “young people of our students’ age level are more likely to begin experimenting.”

The ceremony was held informally before the school day began, she said. All students were invited to attend and about half of them did, she said.

Red ribbons exhorting students to “STOP, Say No to Drugs” were handed out, but the supply ran short. More will be distributed next week, she said.

‘Time to Think’

But, she added, her staff decided to postpone handing out ribbons with the words “Laguna Says No to Drugs.” She said she decided on the postponement to give her staff “time to think how best to present them to the students.”

It was not the board action that prompted the postponement, only the conflicting feelings about Hardman among parents and students. “My position is to support the board in anything they decide,” Becker said.

Ronald P. Kreber, Hardman’s defense attorney, said the board’s action Tuesday “was a good deal for everybody. . . . The thing we are looking at is to take (Hardman’s rehabilitation) one step at a time.

“He has practically no income,” Kreber said. “He’s coming off of professional sports. This is a problem athletes run into. He’s going to have to get his degree or some job. . . . I don’t know what he saved from professional sports, but that’s his job--the present coaching job. Certainly he’s going to have to work.”

Kreber said Hardman will have difficulty because “he’s living in a fish bowl the way it is, and he’s certainly going to have to prove not only to himself but to everybody around that he is clean and . . . that he has a solid commitment against the use of cocaine.”