BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK : Fired Westlake Coach Hopes to Reconstruct Basketball Career

Roy Gilmore is taking a summer sabbatical. The only current worry of the former Westlake High coach centers on the remodeling of his house rather than on the reconstruction of the Westlake basketball team, or the dismantling of center Don MacLean of rival Simi Valley.

If you ask Gilmore what he’d prefer to be doing, however, he’ll tell you he’d much rather be using a pencil and clipboard than a brush and paint can. But because the school gave him the brush-off and canned him, he’ll likely be spending next season watching from the hard, wooden bleachers instead of the hardwood floor.

“I’m looking for something,” Gilmore said, “Not too hard, but I’m looking.”

The reason Gilmore is searching for a coaching position was once as obscure as the old coat of paint on his house. When he stepped down in April, several questions remained about the timing of the move and the rationale behind it.

The rhetoric was that Gilmore had resigned to spend more time with his family. Today, however, Gilmore admits he was ushered out of the position only days after his team lost a thriller to Santa Monica, 62-60, in the Southern Section 4-A final.

For Gilmore, the firing was as sudden and unexpected as a half-court bomb at the buzzer. Imagine being a teacher summoned for a meeting with superiors, thinking it concerned something as mundane as sixth-period attendance and leaving with your head spinning--or worse--on a platter.

Just two days after the team banquet, a bewildered Gilmore was no longer coach. Athletic Director Bob Fisher dismissed him, citing the need to have a full-time, on-campus coach. Gilmore is a physical education teacher at Newbury Park, and while both schools are in the Conejo Valley School District, a transfer to Westlake was never worked out.

“I keep telling everyone that the only reason he was let go is because we wanted on-campus coaches,” Fisher said. “There wasn’t one on-campus coach in the whole basketball program. We’d have loved to keep Roy on, but when you teach auto safety, health and P.E. like he does, it’s an automatic turn down for transfer.”

Gilmore still thinks the school could have been more accommodating. He said he will teach courses in western civilization and U.S. government.

“I guess that’s why they fired me, some kind of personnel numbers game,” Gilmore said. “It’s as good a reason as any. I didn’t get much support, that’s for sure.”

At the time, Gilmore and Fisher agreed to call Gilmore’s dismissal a “voluntary resignation.” Now, after the smoke has cleared, Gilmore employs a more certain term.

“I don’t know what else you can call it,” Gilmore said, “I was fired. I was relieved of duty.”

Gilmore said his best guess about the reasons behind the move concerned the way he handled the team.

“Some thought the kids controlled the team. I’m basically a Tarkanian-type coach--more of a partier and a wild person. Fisher is more of a Wooden-type since he played for the guy at UCLA. I don’t know, maybe that played a part in it.

“I think some people thought I was too nice a guy. Maybe I am.”

Gilmore didn’t see much that was nice about the way the dismissal was handled, especially considering his association with Fisher. It was Fisher who gave Gilmore his first coaching job, hiring him as an assistant at Newbury Park in 1971.

Fisher said the decision was reached in January, well before the team played above anyone’s wildest expectations.

“Let’s face it. As successful as Roy has been over the last two years, I’d be crazy to let him go for any other reason,” Fisher said.

Gilmore, 45, coached Westlake to a 68-36 record during his four-year tenure. Last year’s 21-8 mark was the best in school history.

Last month, Gilmore was given a vote of confidence from a different source when the Ventura County Coaches’ Assn. voted him the coach of the year--an honor, to be sure, but small consolation.

“I’d trade the trophy for the job,” he said. “Or let’s say, I would have traded it. Right now I don’t think I’d want to go back.”

The decision was not an easy one for Fisher.

“Of course, it bothers me,” Fisher said. “Obviously Roy did a good job here. The decision wasn’t taken lightly, and I still feel the pain of it.

“But sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the overall picture. I have to look at where I want the program to be five years down the road. We just needed somebody who could direct the program from inside, not the outside.”

Add Westlake: Greg Hess, 31, the coach named to replace Gilmore, arrived this week from Calgary, Canada, after driving down with his wife and 5-year-old son.

So how does a school in Southern California get wind of a coach from the Great White North, or vice versa?

“It’s a pretty unbelievable story,” Fisher said. “He sent out a batch of letters to schools all over California. His resume was as outstanding as any I’ve seen, and he even had a reference listing for the premier of Alberta. That’s like having the governor listed if you were in the U.S.

“I knew we would be looking for somebody, so I called him and he was still available.”

Hess coached the past four seasons at James Fowler High, where he won one city championship and finished second in another. He formerly coached at Ernest Manning High and Mt. Royal College in Calgary.

“He flew down here with his own money and was very impressive in the interview,” Fisher said. “He’s raring to go. He’s already setting up the practices with the team.”

Hess will teach history at Westlake.

Walk-off: If the name sounds vaguely familiar, there was an independent candidate in the 1980 presidential election by the same name. That John Anderson, a political unknown, finished a distant third.

At 6-11, 230, the John Anderson that’s expected to attend Cal State Northridge isn’t unknown to the CSUN basketball staff, but his whereabouts are.

Anderson, a center who attended Mira Costa College last season, has announced to CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy his desire to sign a letter of intent with the school. Anderson has told other four-year college recruiters the same thing.

The trouble is, he hasn’t signed yet, and Cassidy can’t find him. Repeated efforts to contact Anderson--who averaged 16 points and eight rebounds and was named to the All-Pacific Coast Conference team--have failed.