Welch Will Continue Legal Fight : Prep football: After receiving support from parents’ group, Canyon coach says he will defy his principal’s recommendation to accept one-year suspension.

Embattled Canyon High football Coach Harry Welch, rejecting the recommendation of his principal, decided late Thursday to carry on without the school’s help in his fight against the Southern Section’s call for a one-year suspension.

Welch said Canyon Principal Bill White told him Thursday morning that he had no choice but to accept Commissioner Stan Thomas’ recommendation of a one-year suspension to avoid a “full-scale investigation” promised by Thomas.

But Welch was defiant Thursday night after meeting with a parents’ group, which told the coach he had “carte blanche” to continue his legal fight.

“We’re behind him 100 percent,” said Barbara Leary, one of 67 parents of Canyon players who met at Welch’s home. “We feel it’s a real community issue and our community is under attack. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

Welch said that he will confer with his attorney, Stephen J. Tully, before actually going ahead with his defense. Welch said that if Tully advises against continuing the fight, he will act according to Tully’s wishes. “There’s a very strong mandate here tonight,” Welch said. “I gave them (the parents) the situation, told them how we could lose at any turn and that it would be a great hardship and handicap on them.

“But they feel rather strongly that justice has not been served. It makes me feel wonderful.”

White, in Bakersfield on a business trip until Sunday night, was unavailable for comment. Thomas, reached before Welch met with the parents’ group, said only that he and White conversed on Thursday, and that he expected a final answer from White on Monday.

The recommendation for Welch’s suspension stems from a photograph that appeared in the May 19 issue of the Newhall Signal. The photograph showed a Canyon football player in shorts hitting a blocking sled in the presence of assistant coach Brian Stiman and several players. The photograph was taken May 7.

Southern Section rules forbid football teams from practicing for longer than one class period a day from the end of the season until May 20, when spring practice begins. The rule also prohibits the use of sleds, blocking dummies and other football equipment.

Canyon appealed its case Tuesday in Cerritos to a three-member panel chosen from the Southern Section’s Executive Committee. The panel recommended that Canyon produce a penalty of its own in answer to Thomas’ recommendation of a one-year suspension.

After a private one-hour meeting among Welch, White and Clyde Smyth, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, a seven-point counterproposal was proferred which included disallowing Welch from coaching in any of the Cowboys’ five nonleague games.

The panel voted 2-1 to reject the proposal, with St. Bernard principal Father William Brelsford being the most strident opponent.

“If Coach Welch is responsible, it seems to me that he hasn’t been removed from the program (under Canyon’s counterproposal),” Brelsford said.

“Five pre-league games don’t determine league championships or playoffs. I don’t see approving any penalty such as this without a full-blown hearing . . . to determine who is responsible.”