Westlake Athletic Director Maintains Order in Year of Tumult

Bob Fisher likens himself to a referee, or an umpire. You know, that barely visible, ill-defined figure in the background.

The guy standing behind the plate when Hank Aaron hit No. 715.

Or the guy who raised his arms when Bart Starr followed Jerry Kramer into the end zone.

Look past the action hard enough and you’ll see him. Or, sometimes, the action just seems to find him.

Such is the plight of Bob Fisher. When controversy came knocking, he was bold enough to confront it.

Fisher is the athletic director at Westlake High, which is probably all one needs to know about the predicament of Bob Fisher. For the better part of a year, it seems that Fisher has been pushed, prodded, tested, tried, second-guessed and questioned first.

Consider, in no particular order, the events of the past 12 months that have landed Fisher and Westlake in the sports pages of area newspapers:

Amid charges of recruiting, three Pacoima students state their intention to enroll at Westlake--where they will play football--and take up residence in Westlake Village under the guardianship of a local businessman.

The three return to Pacoima; two were academically ineligible and one cited homesickness.

A former most valuable player is unceremoniously cut from the baseball team because of disciplinary reasons.

A basketball player provokes a near-riot during a game.

The football coach quits.

Rumors swirl that former Crespi Coach Bill Redell has been offered a Gretzky-like contract to coach the football team.

A new football coach--not Redell--is hired.

The baseball coach quits for personal reasons.

A new baseball coach is hired.

The tennis coach quits.

A new tennis coach is hired.

The new tennis coach is fired because, according to Fisher, there was a lack of commitment to the program.

A newer tennis coach is hired.

The grand total? An unlucky 13 incidents. Fisher, through it all, remains philosophical.

“The thing I’ve thought about a lot since I’ve become athletic director--and I’ve been in the Conejo Valley for 27 years--(is that) an athletic director should be like a good official in a game,” he said. “Keep the game under control, but you’re not noticeable. I think that’s really important.”

Reclining in his small office, students rushing past a large window behind him, Fisher grinned a little.

“I’ve thought back on that, and if that’s the case, I hope it’s not entirely true,” he said. “Because I’ve been in the press a lot and people kid me. They say, ‘I haven’t seen your name in the paper for a couple days, aren’t you doing anything over there?’

“But I just happen to be in a unique situation.”

Unique, perhaps. Tumultuous, certainly. Those issues have made Fisher an athletic director’s answer to Don Denkinger, the umpire who went from anonymity to notoriety with one much-publicized call in the 1985 World Series.

Fisher, like Denkinger, could not retreat from the controversy. He studied the circumstances, made the decision and accepted the consequences.

Some verdicts were easier than others.

Take the case of senior Craig Cooper, the baseball team’s MVP as a junior who was dismissed from the team this spring. Fisher backed first-year Coach Rich Herrera, who made the call. Fisher then dealt with the subsequent appeals to the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

“Because you’re making the right decision doesn’t mean you don’t feel the pain coming across the desk at you,” he said. “We all want to make people smile and feel good.”

In situations such as those, Fisher struggles to keep events in perspective. He uses the word often, like legendary UCLA basketball Coach John Wooden, a copy of whose Pyramid of Success hangs prominently in Fisher’s office. In the left corner, in black ink, the inscription reads: Best Wishes, John Wooden .

“Perspective was a big word of Coach Wooden’s,” said Fisher, 51, who was basketball coach at Newbury Park High for seven seasons, from 1968-74, before becoming the Westlake athletic director in 1986. “I think we tend to lose perspective, and I think perhaps that’s what’s caused some of the interesting situations that have arisen in the last year or so. Some people have lost perspective as to what high school athletics are all about.

“I find that parents tend to lose perspective. I think their egos are on the line. They want to say their student goes to the best college, or their student received a scholarship. Sort of one up on the Joneses. And when that happens people do tend to lose perspective as to what’s going on, what we’re trying to accomplish. And (not) letting the kids grow up.”

So why is it that controversy, like the dinner guest who won’t go home, has become so well-acquainted with Westlake?

George Contreras, who resigned in December after 11 years as Westlake’s football coach, places much of the blame for the coaching merry-go-round on declining enrollment, which reduces the number of available teaching positions and, as a result, stifles the school’s ability to hire on-campus coaches. Contreras, an on-campus teacher, was replaced by former Crespi assistant Jim Benkert, who has walk-on status.

“A lot of it has to do with the times we’re living in, in terms of coaches,” Contreras said. “That has caused a lot of funny things to happen.

“Parents want Sparky Anderson as the baseball coach, Pat Riley as the basketball coach and Vince Lombardi as the football coach, and they can’t understand the other things that go into the decision.”

Contreras conceded that it has been a stranger-than-fiction year, but said Fisher has been solid from prologue to epilogue. While his peers tended to regular duties such as scheduling games, cutting checks for referees and making sure the buses show up, Fisher took on a wider range of responsibilities.

“What Bob does real well is he realizes the things he can control and the things he can’t control. He is kind of a low-key guy but has a good grip on the problems. And he has the ability to not look back. Anytime you make a decision, there are people who won’t be happy.”

Given the choice and the circumstances, you couldn’t blame Fisher for forsaking a glance over his shoulder. Something, as the saying goes, might be gaining on him.

Terry Dobbins, who left his post as Simi Valley athletic director last year for a similar position at Royal, also attributes many of Westlake’s difficulties to declining enrollment and the subsequent reliance on walk-on coaches.

“Every time I see him he has some tragedy going on, and I feel so terrible for him,” Dobbins said of Fisher.

Given two of the situations--Herman Cooper threatening to file a lawsuit on behalf of his son, and Buzz Holcomb, who assumed legal guardianship for the Pacoima boys to facilitate their transfer to Westlake, also obtaining legal assistance--Dobbins pointed to the economics of Westlake Village.

“I think you’re dealing with an area of Southern California that is pretty affluent,” he said. “It’s my impression they all have lawyers and they know how to use them and know how to use the legal system.”

Fisher, however, like any good official, took none of it to heart.

“I really don’t feel I’ve had a problem keeping it in perspective and I haven’t taken anything personally,” he said. “Bob Fisher, personally, is not involved in this.”