Suspended Football Coach Doesn’t Know Why : Compton School Officials Mum About Inquiry Over Teaching Credentials, Field Trips, Unpaid Bills

“Coach Cruz, No. 1 . . . he’s turned things around.”

Angry Centennial High School football players stood in front of the school and chanted those words a few hours after their coach, Tony Cruz, was suspended last month.

Cruz, who came to Centennial a year ago, said in a recent interview that he has dedicated himself to instilling discipline, pride and hope in his players. As a result, he said the Apaches are in position to have their first winning season since 1972.

He has even enabled some of the players to get college scholarships, something that hasn’t happened for years.

“It’s tough here,” said Cruz, 45, a brash New Yorker who is known for doing things his way. “It’s something to have a kid stand up and want to be successful. All you have to do is demonstrate tangible evidence (that) you want to help them, and they will respond.”

The players are grateful.

“We all believe in him,” said Larry Allen, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound tackle. “He does a lot for us. He makes us work hard.”

However, Cruz’ future at the school has become blurred with his suspension and that of principal Henry Jefferson. Cruz said he doesn’t know why either action was taken.

He said this week that Compton Unified School District officials have yet to tell him why he was suspended and that he does not expect to hear anything until after Tuesday, when the matter goes before the school board in a private session.

District officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the suspension, saying it is a confidential personnel matter.

Unidentified sources quoted by The Long Beach Press-Telegram have said that officials are investigating allegations that Cruz was improperly hired because he didn’t have a teaching credential and that he took players on unauthorized field trips, incurring bills that have not been paid.

“Those (allegations) obviously were given by people involved in the program at Centennial High,” Supt. Ted D. Kimbrough told The Times last week. He added, “That’s not the total story,” but would not comment further.

Cruz maintains that because the trips were made when school was not in session, they were not illegal. He said: “Each kid filled out a parent authorization form, which was then filed in the school.”

He said he took about 30 players camping in the high desert near Laughlin, Nev., last summer to “give them a look at something besides Compton.” And in January he took four players to Arizona Western College, a junior college in Yuma. As a result of the trip, those players were offered football scholarships, according to a spokesman for the college.

Both trips, Cruz said, were at his expense, and he denied that any money is owed from them.

He said there are unpaid bills in his name for “little things” such as film and a computer program. “Everything there is in our program is computerized,” he said.

‘It’s Cost Me a Fortune’

School fund-raising activities had been planned to pay those team bills, which come to about $5,000, Cruz said.

He said most of the money spent to improve the football program has been his. “It’s cost me a fortune,” he said, estimating his expenses at $10,000.

Only $20,000 is budgeted for all sports and extracurricular activities at Centennial, he said.

Mayfair High School in Lakewood, in the Bellflower Unified School District, has an enrollment close to Centennial’s 1,250 but spends about $50,000 a year on sports and activities, said Principal Barbara Hinds.

Cruz, who also coaches the wrestling team, said he gets $4,000 a year from Centennial. He said he is “financially comfortable,” explaining that he draws income from investments. “I don’t come from a poor family,” he added.

He is employed as a so-called walk-on coach; he does not teach classes or receive a full-time salary. He gets paid only during the football and wrestling seasons, although he said he devotes 60 hours a week year-round to his football operation.

Methods Have Caused Resentment

As for Cruz being improperly hired, a spokesman for the State Department of Education in Sacramento said a person does not have to have a teaching credential to be a head coach.

Cruz acknowledged that his methods have caused resentment among other coaches and teachers at Centennial.

Willie Emanuel, athletic director at Centennial, declined to give his opinion of Cruz.

“I just tell people what I think,” Cruz said. “I’m from New York; we’re kind of abrasive to begin with. . . . I don’t have the greatest temperament in the world.”

Cruz, who has a degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston but has never been a practicing attorney, was an assistant coach at Diamond Bar High School before he came to Centennial.

“He does a great job coaching; that’s all I’d like to say,” said Terry Roach, former head coach at Diamond Bar. “He was dependable and worked real hard. He did a good job relating to the kids. I think he cares about kids and is sincere. He showed up right when football season started and disappeared when it was over.”

Cruz said he has been a coach for 23 years and also has worked as a sports commentator on a New York City FM radio station. He said he coached Pop Warner and New York-area high school teams and the New York City Police Department team. In 1973, he was head coach at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y.

$5,000 to $10,000 Hotel Bill

A Queens College official who asked not to be identified recalled Cruz in a telephone conversation last week: “He decided the kids needed a training camp, so he took them to a hotel.” The bill came to “between $5,000 and $10,000 that eventually had to be paid by the school.”

When told of this accusation, Cruz said, “We did go to a camp, but that was approved by the school; we had a $30,000 budget. I left there with a great name.”

Guido S. Foglia of Huntington, N.Y., who was athletic chairman at Queens in 1973, said that Cruz did a fine job at the school and that there was “no negative aspect to his time here. He had no support group; he had to do everything on his own.” Foglia said Cruz had authority from the college president to allow the team to stay for a week at the hotel.

Cruz said he first wanted to coach at Centennial while watching a Centennial-Diamond Bar game from the Diamond Bar scouting booth.

“I thought, ‘My God, look at all those athletes,’ ” Cruz said.

He was hired in March, 1987, by a committee and Principal Jefferson. Cruz said Jefferson, who also was suspended, has been a supporter of the team and attended its games. Jefferson declined to comment last week.

Started Weightlifting Program

When Cruz arrived, he brought a $40,000 trailer with him and converted it into a blue-carpeted weight room/locker room/office.

Cruz said he immediately instituted a weightlifting program. But he said some teachers at the school considered it a class, and they complained to the teachers’ union that it was illegal because he wasn’t credentialed. He said he agreed to disband the program.

The trailer, positioned between the Apache football field and baseball diamond, is a source of pride to the players. For one thing, unlike other buildings on the campus, it bears no graffiti.

‘I Treat Kids Tough’

Cruz described himself as a disciplinarian: “I treat kids tough; I’m a hard nose. When I first came here I ranted and raved. We concentrated on discipline. We keep insisting on their success. All you do is hear negatives; kids have to put up with gangs and drugs. Nobody on the football team is affiliated with any gang. We do not permit anything negative said during practice.”

Cruz said he emphasizes academics and success to his players.

“Last year, 63 kids came out for football and 41 were flunking,” he said. “The principal helped me put together a tutoring program and we lost only four kids.”

One struggling player was Allen, who said that since Cruz arrived he has raised his grade-point average from 1.8 to 2.4. “He said I was college material, and now I believe him,” Allen said.

Before Cruz took over, the Apaches were 2-8 in 1984, 1-8 in ’85 and 0-10 in ’86.

Last season, the team was 3-6-1.

“They were competitive; you could tell something positive was happening there, that he was building something,” said Lalo Mendoza, athletic director at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles.

Mendoza, who met Cruz last summer, said Cruz will “hustle to get extra support and the things his kids need.”

Cruz said the “most rewarding days of my life” were when he received scholarship papers for five of his seniors who will graduate later this month.

Going to Arizona Western will be linebacker Eric Carter, defensive back Eugene Beaver, tackle Antonio Dyer and defensive back David Bridges. Linebacker Tim Hall has won a football scholarship to Boise State University.

Encouraged by Players’ Parents

After the season, Cruz said, the team’s boosters raised money so that the players could be honored at a banquet.

“Parents came up to me and said not to leave until their kids graduated and that the football program was the most positive thing that’s happened at Centennial,” Cruz said.

Howard Sanders, whose grandson, Tory Florence, plays on the team, said the football program “wasn’t anything” before Cruz.

“He’s done a lot of positive things up there,” Sanders said. “All the boys like him; he’s a second father to those kids.”

Cruz said Centennial has several excellent teachers. But many others, he contends, don’t care about the students as much as he does.

“I’ve been in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx and have never seen a more obvious attempt by a group of people to see that these kids become unsuccessful,” said Cruz, who lives in Cerritos. “I have a tendency to go ahead and do things that need to be done. We can’t afford to wait anymore with the number of kids we’re losing--getting shot and intellectually dying every year.”

Wilhelmina Ryan, president of the Compton Education Assn., scoffed at Cruz’ assessment.

“It’s unbelievable from the standpoint that every classroom teacher at Centennial is credentialed by the State of California,” Ryan said. “And, therefore, unless he can point to a specific example, it really isn’t worth a response. . . .

“There are youngsters at Centennial who have won scholarships and have been applauded for achievements in English and in the science and math areas.”

Ryan added: “I’ve been to Bedford-Stuyvesant, and this community doesn’t have half the problems.”

Hopes for More Scholarships

Cruz, who hopes to get scholarships for 17 more players on his 1988 team, said football is in jeopardy at Centennial if he isn’t reinstated.

“The kids will leave,” he predicted.

Despite the uncertainty created by his suspension, Cruz said he is looking forward to the coming season at Centennial: “If we get back, after what these kids have been put through, who could beat them?”

Meanwhile, many of the players call their coach nightly.

“I’ve had to remind them about their (college placement) tests,” Cruz said.

Times Staff Writer Michele Fuetsch also contributed to this story.