Full Probe Ordered in Welch Case : High school football: Southern Section panel delays decision regarding Canyon coach pending investigation.

In a four-hour meeting marked by miscommunication and confusion, a Southern Section appeal panel voted two to one Tuesday to conduct “a full-blown investigation” before passing judgment on Canyon High football Coach Harry Welch, whose program has been accused of holding an off-season practice in violation of section rules.

The panel had convened in Cerritos to review what action Canyon had decided to take against Welch, 46, in the wake of a June 21 recommendation by section Commissioner Stan Thomas to the Executive Committee to suspend Welch for one year. But Welch and school and district officials were under the impression that the suspension already had been approved and that Tuesday’s hearing was to contest the severity of the penalty.

Caught off guard, the Canyon delegation, which included Canyon Principal Bill White and Clyde Smyth, the William S. Hart Union High School District superintendent, asked for a recess just a half-hour into the meeting to formulate a counterproposal.

In voting for the investigation, which will get under way this week, according to Thomas, the panel rejected Canyon’s counterproposal of a seven-step penalty that included prohibiting Welch from coaching in any of the Cowboys’ five nonleague games.

“I was as surprised as anyone,” White said of his reaction to the announcement by Father William Brelsford, principal at St. Bernard High, that Tuesday’s meeting was simply to hear what sort of penalty Canyon had imposed on Welch and whether it met with section approval. “I wish I could have had more time to collect my thoughts and put together a scenario that would have been acceptable to anybody.”

In addition, Canyon proposed:

* Barring Welch from making contact with players or the program effective immediately until Hell Week in late August. He would, however, be allowed to conduct Canyon practices during the nonleague schedule.

* The school’s acceptance of a probationary period as determined by the section.

* The termination of one assistant coach and a letter of admonition to be placed in the file of assistant coach Brian Stiman, who was pictured in the May 19 edition of the Newhall Signal using a blocking sled with several Canyon football players in violation of section rules.

“We’re learning a lesson here,” White told the panel. “This is about people making mistakes. We screwed up, and we’re here to say we screwed up. We’re hurting desperately over this--but we don’t want to hurt the kids. That’s what I’m asking you to consider.”

During open deliberation, Brelsford and Cynthia Grennan, the Anaheim Union High School District superintendent, expressed doubt that a “fair resolution” could be reached without “a full-blown investigation.”

Walnut High Principal Ken Gunn, the third member of the panel, voted otherwise. “I’m not convinced that a hearing will accomplish any more,” Gunn said. “Today I’ve seen people getting together and agreeing to work in a positive manner. I see some real positive things coming out of today, and I don’t see anything positive coming out of a full-blown hearing.”

Thomas said that the Southern Section has conducted several investigations similar to the one he will undertake this week. He warned Canyon that it would be “a brutal session” and that he had “people that want to testify.” Thomas added that the penalties could be “far more severe” as a result of the official hearing.

That hearing is tentatively scheduled for early August. The same three-member panel will hear the findings of the investigation.

Welch, frustrated by what he perceived to be a massive breakdown in communication between the Southern Section and Canyon High, believed that White’s counterproposal was more than fair. “I thought the penalty we came back with was harsher than what I would have felt an objective person would have accepted,” Welch said. “They presented no evidence today, whatsoever, of a violation.”

White took exception to Thomas’ recommendation that, should the hearing result in Welch’s suspension, White should “have in place a new coaching staff ready to step in.”

“You just don’t go out and get new coaching staffs quite like the one we have at Canyon,” White said. “That’s an absurd option and the kids deserve better than that. To place me in that position . . . it just doesn’t work that way. It’s not a viable option.”

Welch, meanwhile, left Cerritos immediately after the meeting to coach a passing-league game in Ventura late Tuesday afternoon. As he left, he wondered what it would take to satisfy the appeal panel.

“I’m confused, except it’s real clear to me that they want to punish more.”