He Is the Man on the Hot Seat : High schools: Just who is CIF Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas? The answer tends to depend on whom you ask.

He will tell you he’s only doing the bidding of his constituents, but Stan Thomas may be the most powerful man in California high school sports.

As one of his constituents put it: “He is sort of God.”

Since 1986, Thomas, 58, has been commissioner of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section, a sprawling, nonprofit organization of 476 high schools from Mammoth to the San Diego County line, excluding 49 Los Angeles city campuses.

It is by far the largest of the state’s 10 sections, larger than all but seven state federations.

If the section’s size helps provide his power, it and the times serve to make Thomas’ job complex and to define how he is perceived by the people he purports to serve. State CIF Commissioner Thomas E. Byrnes, who held Thomas’ job from 1975 to 1980 and before that was assistant to section Commissioner J. Kenneth Fagans, said that today, “Everything’s more complicated. Everything is more litigious.”

It may follow, then, that everything is more controversial.

Thomas “has had probably the hottest tenure . . . of any commissioner in the last 10 or 15 years,” said Principal William Brand of Mission Viejo’s Trabuco Hills High, another constituent.

Yet, after earning a reputation as fair, objective and professional in his climb to the top, Thomas occasionally is criticized these days as lacking in those traits. Perhaps it is the nature of the job or the tenor of the times, but as the man in charge, Thomas seems to have become a lightning rod for controversy.

As he rose from successful prep football coach to innovative high school principal to pioneering school administrator, Thomas left a trail of admirers.

“He was a strong disciplinarian . . . (but) kids loved him because he was fair,” said Hank Frese, the Anaheim Katella High assistant principal who was Thomas’ football assistant 20 years ago at Norwalk Neff High School. “He pumped them up and made them feel like winners and believe in themselves.”

Thomas worked for Bob Packer, Duarte Unified School District superintendent, when they were in the Tustin school district.

“He was regarded as one of the strong principals in Orange County by his peers,” recalled Packer, who is one of Thomas’ bosses again as a section executive committee member. “He seeks input in his decisions, but he will make a decision. He’s not wishy-washy.”

A graduate of Los Angeles Manual Arts High and Whittier College, Thomaswas an assistant principal at the former Excelsior and Neff high schools in Norwalk before moving to Tustin.

As principal at Santa Ana’s Foothill High, Thomas was so successful in attracting financial support from the business community that a new post in the district office was created for him to oversee commerce and technology. He brought those skills to the commissioner’s job, expanding the corporate sponsorship program begun by his predecessor.

Among CIF section commissioners, Thomas is regarded as a leader. Within his section, he appears to enjoy broad support in the second year of a three-year, $78,500 contract, a considerable increase over his 1986 salary of $50,808.

As commissioner, Thomas administers day-to-day operations, investigates rule violations, approves playoff seedings and has the final word in disputes involving playoffs. His authority under the bylaws is to “interpret all rules and regulations . . . and these interpretations will be final.”

Thomas and his staff field rule questions daily from parents, coaches, principals and others.

Though his rulings can be appealed to the executive committee of 17 school administrators, most are not. When there is an appeal, Thomas generally is upheld.

A common violation is the participation of an ineligible player. For this, Thomas’ office often recommends the school forfeit its games. A school may refuse, but risks being barred from playoffs or having its section membership revoked. “When the Southern Section recommends something, I think a school should listen,” Thomas has said.

In the past, Southern Section commissioners often seemed to transcend their job description. But Thomas says this is a gentler, kinder era.

“The trend today is (away from) the assertive management style that existed 10 or 15 years ago,” he said. “Being somewhat dictatorial . . . (is) gone forever.”

When Thomas was hired in 1986, he vowed to be “a very visible ambassador for Southern Section athletics.” He was touted for drawing on the expertise of those around him and as an administrator who doesn’t rush to judgment--a people person.

Yet as commissioner, Thomas admits he sometimes has done just that, speaking before all the evidence is in.

And sometimes, Thomas concedes, he hammers home a point when a little tact might work better.

Because his actions affect someone’s children, it’s probably not surprising that at times Thomas can be about as popular as a Little League umpire.

Recently, he has clashed with Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High School and the press. Thomas backed down in both cases, but open wounds remain.

Mater Dei complained that Thomas acted unprofessionally and wrongly left the impression that the school skirts the rules. The Riverside Press-Enterprise said that Thomas has assumed dictatorial powers and for some reason is opposed to the press doing its job.

Thomas rebuts, saying criticism of his management style generally comes “only because we’re enforcing a rule they disagree with.”

But even after the recent disputes were settled, Thomas had critical words for the school and the paper.

“There are times when a leader has to be strong and make strong statements,” said section President Tom Jacobson, principal at Corona del Mar High in Newport Beach. “There are other times when he has to be sensitive, forgiving. I’ve seen Stan Thomas move up and down that scale on a lot of occasions.”

Thomas is a man of contradictions. He says he is bound by the rules. But he can find loopholes.

When a Dana Hills High hurdler was disqualified for running around--instead of over--a misplaced hurdle in a 1989 track championship qualifying heat, Thomas ordered all 36 runners in all four heats to rerun their races.

He based his ruling on a videotape, despite CIF rules that generally prohibit using films. The disqualified runner still didn’t qualify. But one boy who had qualified was eliminated in the re-run heat.

Thomas has championed the right of privacy. But he has argued to set aside those rights for drug testing.

He says he tempers the rule book with compassion. But he once complained that a Superior Court judge “decided to let a kid play football . . . based on humanistic factors” rather than following the CIF rules.

Thomas says he is too busy to be vindictive. Still, he points out, “I’ll forgive, but I’ll remember.”

Still, his supporters say, Thomas holds no grudges.

“The bottom line is . . . he tries to be fair, and I’ve never felt he jeopardizes the integrity of the CIF office,” said Trabuco Hills’ Brand, who has disagreed with Thomas on occasion.

But even some of Thomas supporters acknowledge he is not always ingratiating.

“Stan Thomas is an open-minded, diplomatic person who . . . isn’t afraid to disagree,” Jacobson said. “That may cause people to think he’s being authoritative.”

There are more appeals and lawsuits than ever in prep athletics. Last year 12 athletes were barred for life from the CIF for violence.

“We’ve had combinations of kids fighting kids, kids fighting coaches, coaches fighting kids, parents getting involved . . . some people have lost control,” Thomas said.

Thomas has little regard for coaches who lose control. He believes the coach sets the tone for his players.

Some of his critics say the commissioner sets the tone for the section.

“I see (Thomas’) role as commissioner as the pivotal role in mending fences,” said Father John Weling, president of Mater Dei High. “But sometimes he can aggravate circumstances with a slip of the tongue.”

Mater Dei clashed with Thomas over the transfer of talented football players Derek and Leland Sparks from Montclair Prep in Van Nuys.

Thomas initially said he was investigating the Mater Dei athletic department. “It would appear Mater Dei is giving special treatment to athletes,” he said.

But after the school complained, Thomas said he was misquoted. He later conceded he actually had used the word investigation, but that Mater Dei really wasn’t under investigation at all.

Although Thomas apologized, he still maintains “the manner by which (the Sparks cousins) got there is not normal.”

Even after the Sparks were found to be eligible and properly admitted, Mater Dei “was really raked over the coals” by Thomas, complained Lyle Porter, the school’s principal.

Thomas said the transfer, though legal, hurt his efforts to bridge the gap between public and parochial schools.

Thomas was caught in a court fight last year after a Huntington Beach High School football player was found to be ineligible. The school forfeited the games in which the boy played, effectively knocking itself out of the playoffs.

But the school’s booster club won a temporary court order reinstating the team.

Nothing irritates Thomas as much as circumventing the rules with a lawsuit, especially when filed by a booster club. The Southern Section won on appeal, and Huntington Beach was out again. But animosity lingered.

“I do think he turned it into more of a personal vendetta,” Huntington Beach High Booster Club President Reno Bellamy said.

Not all lawsuits are created equal in Thomas’ view.

When schools sue the section, he said, “they are . . . abdicating the by-laws of this organization.”

Consequently, Thomas said, “I remember the people who litigate us.”

Thomas has never been much of a booster-club booster.

“I didn’t have a booster club,” he said of his coaching days. “I had enough to do without having another night out to listen to parents tell me what we should or shouldn’t do.”

But for parents such as Bellamy, booster clubs are money-makers, filling the gaps in school budgets.

“I don’t think (the section) should try to dictate,” Bellamy said. “We had to take them to court. The boys can say: ‘At least somebody stood up for us.’ ”

Thomas recently met with hundreds of booster club representatives to ward off another season of lawsuits. But when he spoke, not everyone thought it was to bury the hatchet.

“It was just a beating-up of Huntington Beach for what we did,” Bellamy said.

Thomas later conceded he might have missed an opportunity to mend fences.

“I could have said something a little more tactful,” Thomas said. “But I also wanted to make a point. . . . As a result, I did try to hammer home the point.”

Thomas is now in the midst of an investigation of Van Nuys Montclair Prep. The investigation began with allegations of grade tampering and other irregularities by relatives of the Sparks cousins.

Thomas concedes that no wrong-doing has been proven. Nonetheless, he has been publicly critical of Montclair Prep.

“In 1985 . . . an investigation (of Montclair Prep) took place and apparently at that time there was no irregularity, but we had heard there was,” Thomas said. “And last year I heard some other comments from people that maybe there were some irregularities.”

Does repeating uncorroborated allegations unjustly impugn Montclair Prep’s reputation?

“I just said I heard those things, I didn’t say they were guilty,” Thomas said.

Montclair Prep officials smarted nonetheless.

“It was very unprofessional of him to make . . . comments to the newspaper before talking with us,” Montclair Prep Principal V.E. Simpson said. “I’ve been a member of CIF for over 30 years. I’ve dealt with (former commissioners) Mr. Fagans and Mr. (Ray J.) Plutko and I’ve never had the kind of difficulty I’m having right now.”

Thomas says he holds no grudges. He acknowledges, however, he’s had his differences with the Mission Viejo Nadadores, a private swim club for which many leading high school swimmers compete.

“Why should a youngster . . . work out with the Nadadores daily, not work out with their own high school team and then show up on game day and compete for the high school?” Thomas asked.

In 1988 Thomas ruled a Mission Viejo High swimmer ineligible for failing to notify the Southern Section that he would miss a school meet to compete out of the country for the Nadadores. On appeal, the executive committee upheld Thomas, barring the swimmer from the championships.

Mission Viejo High School Coach Mike Pelton thought it was overkill. Had the boy simply written a letter asking permission to miss the meet, the section would have granted approval, Pelton said.

“They never turned one down . . . that I know of,” Pelton said.

Pelton questions whether it was “really looking out for the best interest of the kid” to take away his senior year on a technicality.

Did Thomas’ feelings about the Nadadores influence his ruling?

“My opinion doesn’t count,” Thomas said. “Only the rule counts. . . . We have to live by . . . the bylaws.”

The bylaws give Thomas’ office authority to issue press credentials.

But Thomas this year didn’t like the reporting of John Garrett, Riverside Press-Enterprise sports editor, who had requested information on the handling of alleged racial incidents leading to a fight that halted a Hemet-Perris football game last season.

“I don’t want to be threatened, and I don’t want to be hammered,” Thomas said.

The Press-Enterprise had written Thomas to request information on racial incidents and cited the California Public Records Act, which requires public agencies to disclose information.

Thomas refused, saying the law does not apply to the CIF, and also refused to issue working press credentials to the Press-Enterprise.

Said Garrett: “I thought Stan had exceeded his authority. Thomas pretty much has dictatorial powers, and nobody is watching over it.”

Several high school football coaches told Press-Enterprise reporters they were reluctant to lodge complaints about players’ racial taunts with the Southern Section. They fear that “instead of Stan Thomas cracking down on the offenders, Stan Thomas will take it out on them,” Garrett said.

Thomas said he was satisfied with the way Perris and Hemet high schools had handled the fighting incident and no action by his office was necessary.

But “the groundwork had been laid . . . that the Riverside Press-(Enterprise) and the CIF were going to be at odds,” Thomas said. “Mr. Garrett . . . was looking for sensationalism rather than fact and I refused to cooperate.”

The press rallied to support the Press-Enterprise.

“Obviously my ego and my personal views no longer counted,” Thomas said after mounting protests. “I acquiesced and I gave them their press credentials.

“That doesn’t change my opinion of Mr. Garrett and his staff,” he said. “I still have little or no regard for their newspaper games.”

Thomas acknowledges that the once straightforward standards used in governing prep sports have been snarled in a world growing more complex by the day.

Written requests for records have become routine for many public agencies. But the Press-Enterprise letter was the first of its kind to cross Thomas’ desk.

Thomas says he has asked Southern Section attorneys to determine whether he must obey public records laws. He now admits: “I don’t know.”