Second Time Around, Hart Picks Herrington to Head Football Team

Mike Herrington, passed over for the job a year ago, has been installed as the third football coach in 17 months at Hart High.

Hart Principal Laurence Strauss elected to hire Herrington on Tuesday night and announced the decision Wednesday. Herrington, who coached at Bellflower last season, replaces Dave Carson, who was forced to resign July 20. Carson had replaced Rick Scott, who resigned last April to coach at Buena High in Ventura.

Herrington will leave Bellflower and work at Hart as a substitute teacher until a teaching position becomes available. Herrington is credentialed to teach physical education, health and driver education.

“I’m just real happy to be back at Hart,” Herrington said. “It’s a situation where I think the principal feels my coaching philosophy and my coaching techniques are what they need.”

Herrington, who met with the Hart team Wednesday, is seen as a popular choice. He and his brothers, Dean and Rick, had been assistant coaches at Hart during the 1980s until Strauss selected Carson and passed over Mike when the job opened last year.

“I was never bitter about that,” Herrington said. “I understood where the principal stood. (Coming back) was not a matter of swallowing my pride, it was a matter of where is the No. 1 place Mike Herrington wants to coach football.”

Dean and Rick Herrington said that they will consider their options and will not automatically follow their brother back to Hart. Still, the return of at least one Herrington has inspired some of the Indians.

“I’m excited and feel confident about the season,” Hart quarterback Rob Westervelt said. “Mike is just a great coach. He knows how to coach kids and he’s fun to play for. I’m ready to get going.”

Herrington was graduated from Hart in 1976 and played offensive tackle for two seasons each at College of the Canyons and Cal State Northridge. He returned to Hart and worked as a varsity assistant for eight seasons before taking the Bellflower job.

He coached on two Southern Section championship teams at Hart and worked as offensive and defensive coordinator for Scott. But it was his experience as a head coach at Bellflower that convinced Strauss to hire him this year.

“The fact that he’s been a head coach and been in charge of a program has given him additional experience,” Strauss said. “Mike is stable, level-headed and hard-working. He’s dedicated to football and Hart High and is well-liked by everyone he works around.”

Herrington’s Hart connections also influenced Strauss, who said that the program needed someone who could facilitate a quick transition. Hart ends its summer program today and starts two-a-day drills Aug. 21.

The hire ends a turbulent two weeks at Hart. Carson was a popular and successful coach at Burbank, one of Hart’s Foothill League rivals. The Indians had won 20 consecutive league games under Scott but managed only a third-place finish in 1988. Hart lost in the first round of the playoffs and finished 6-5.

Strauss forced Carson to resign because he claimed the coach ran a negative program and failed to curtail his use of profane language.

“This has been a traumatic time,” Strauss said. “We need to get some consistency and continuity in the program and I think Mike will fulfill that need.”