Capo Valley Selects Interim Coach : Enright Suspended; Defensive Coordinator Takes Over

Eric Patton, defensive coordinator at Capistrano Valley High School for 10 years, Thursday was named the school’s interim football coach by Principal Tom Anthony to replace suspended Coach Dick Enright.

The Southern Section Executive Committee had recommended that the Capistrano Unified School District suspend Enright for the remainder of the 1987 season and the entire 1988 season, and it ordered Capistrano Valley to forfeit a 22-21 victory over El Toro after an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

District officials accepted the penalties on Thursday morning. Anthony said the school would not appeal the decision.

The committee ruled that Capistrano Valley violated the California Interscholastic Federation’s code of ethics and the scouting prohibitions of the federation’s bylaws in preparing for its South Coast League game against El Toro on Oct. 30.

Anthony said he was informed of the penalties Wednesday night and then had a meeting with the school’s coaches, players and parents later in the evening.

“Most of the players were in shock,” Anthony said. “The players didn’t understand the punishment, and they felt terrible for Dick Enright. Dick Enright could rob a bank and his players would still love him.”

Anthony said he had prepared himself for the worst, but said the penalties were worse than he had anticipated.

“It was a double punishment,” Anthony said. “I can understand the suspension of the coach, but not the forfeit. The kids earned that. That was their game.”

Anthony said Enright would remain at Capistrano Valley as a physical education instructor but would not be allowed to participate in any of the football team’s activities.

Patton is a former two-time All-Southern Section linebacker at Mater Dei who earned a scholarship to Notre Dame. He later played for the Green Bay Packers in the National Football League and the Southern California Sun in the World Football League. The job is his first head coaching assignment.

“There was a time in my life when I craved for a head coaching job, but not this way,” Patton said. “The words hectic, chaotic, shock and daze would best describe this day. There was nothing good about it.”

Patton said he held a team meeting Thursday afternoon at which he told the players that Enright had done a lot of good things for the school, and he emphasized the importance of focusing on the Cougars’ homecoming game tonight against Mission Viejo.

Joe Wood, senior linebacker, said he doesn’t think Enright’s suspension will be a setback to the team.

“We can’t do anything about the past. We must go on,” Wood said. “No one is blaming Coach Enright. He was afraid. I don’t know if I wouldn’t do the same thing if I was in his position.”

Wood said the final meeting with Enright was very emotional.

“Everybody knows that football is Coach Enright’s life,” he said. “A lot of players were in tears.”

Enright told the players before the penalties were announced that the meeting probably would be his last as the school’s coach.

“There were some players who haven’t said two words all year in our meetings who broke down in tears,” Patton said. “When Dick left, I tried to reassure everyone that Dick has done a lot of good things here. Unfortunately, he will be remembered for this.”

Bill Crow, Mission Viejo football coach, thought the section’s committee took a strong stand.

“They were sending a message loud and clear to every coach in the CIF,” Crow said.

Dave Elecciri, San Clemente coach and a former assistant at Capistrano Valley, said he visited Enright at his home on Thursday.

“I have a heavy heart for the guy,” Elecciri said. “He made a mistake and he knows it. We all make mistakes. Unfortunately, his was a big one.”

Despite Enright’s errors, Elecciri thought the two-year suspension was harsh.

“I can understand forfeiting the game and the suspension for this season,” he said. “But putting another year of suspension on Dick was too much.”

Bob Johnson, coach at the El Toro, which filed a complaint about Capistrano Valley to the Southern Section, refused to comment on the incident.

On Wednesday, Enright testified before a nine-person panel that an acquaintance, Mark Donohoo, a former El Toro football player, videotaped an El Toro practice and screened the 10-minute tape on Enright’s home television on the Tuesday before the game.

This violated rule 522 which reads: “Motion pictures, video reproduction and/or any other type of reproduction such as still pictures shall not be taken for scouting purposes in any sport by a representative, official or unofficial, of a Southern Section school in which his/her team member is not a participant, without written consent of the participating schools.”

Donohoo testified that he taped the practice on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from his father’s camper van parked along Serrano Road, about 50 yards from El Toro’s practice field. He later went to Enright’s home, set up his VCR equipment to Enright’s television and played the tape.

Throughout a subsequent investigation, Enright repeatedly told Stan Thomas, Southern Section commissioner, that he had met Donohoo two years ago at a therapy clinic but that he couldn’t recognize him, officials said. Enright admitted his role in the incident to Anthony one day before the hearing.