Back in the Saddle : Canyon’s Welch Beats Southern Section, Prepares to Take On Golden League Again

A large wooden sign stands next to California 14 in the Santa Clarita Valley, welcoming visitors to Canyon Country.

It could just as well read, “Welcome to Harry Welch Country.”

Welch, the football coach at Canyon High, may be the most widely known public figure in the area. For the last nine years, his teams have been winning league titles with relative ease. Home games are always well attended.

And it is hard not to like Welch, because he treats everyone--strangers included--as if they were his best friends.

Welch’s biggest victories these days, though, have been in San Fernando Superior Court. The popular but controversial coach last week was granted an injunction against the William S. Hart Union High School District and the California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section that allowed him to return to his job.

Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas last month banned Welch, 46, from coaching for 5 1/2 months for conducting an illegal practice on May 9. Welch admitted that such a practice had been held but denied that he ordered or was present at it.

Welch hired an attorney to help him in his fight against the Southern Section and on July 31 was granted a 20-day temporary restraining order against the district. He drove straight from the court house to the practice field.

During the three weeks before his injunction hearing, parents and community supporters met and raised more than $10,000 to cover legal expenses. Players, past and present, vowed their support. Local newspapers ran daily stories on the incident.

When Superior Court Judge Haig Kehiayan announced that he was granting the injunction, a standing-room-only crowd of 100 cheered in court.

Once again, Welch had won.

“A burden has been removed,” he said. “It was sensational to be with the Cowboys again.”

It is difficult to say when Welch’s love affair with Canyon Country began. When he worked as an assistant coach in 1970 and ‘71, he commuted from Marina del Rey.

Before landing the head coaching job in 1982, he had applied for the position on five occasions.

“I guess someone up in the administration office didn’t like me,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t get much respect.”

It didn’t take him long to earn some. Never a football power, the Cowboys became instant winners under Welch. They went 8-4 his first season and won the Golden League championship. Since ‘82, Canyon has a 100-19-1 record, seven league titles and three section championships.

There are few obstacles Welch has not been able to overcome. He has a 5-4 series edge against district rival Newhall Hart. Canyon put together a section-record tying 46 consecutive victories from 1983-86. And when the Cowboys moved up to Division I last season, they advanced to the playoff semifinals.

Fan support also has grown. The school has an active booster club, and there are few things Welch or the team go without. During the season, businesses throughout the community hang signs in support of Cowboy football.

Welch even moved to the area. He can point to his sprawling ranch from the football field.

“I adore this community,” Welch said. “My wife and I have never felt more at home than we do here. You can leave your car in the parking lot and not have to worry about locking the doors. The people will give you the shirt off their backs. And the players are not afraid to work hard.”

Problems have accompanied popularity. Welch, an English teacher not afraid to speak his mind, has put himself in some uncomfortable predicaments.

After a 28-27 overtime loss to Santa Barbara in the Division II semifinals in 1989, Welch and his team were disciplined for vandalizing the visitors’ locker room.

Upset that game officials had awarded Santa Barbara a “fifth down” after regulation time had expired with Canyon leading, 21-14, the team went on a rampage after the game. Welch broke a glass trophy case. Two doors and a blackboard were broken and a drinking fountain dismantled.

Canyon coaches, parents and school boosters raised $7,300 to finance a legal challenge they hoped would force the Southern Section to review the outcome of the game. The Southern Section refused, and Welch eventually dropped his plan to get an injunction that would have postponed the championship game between Santa Barbara and Pasadena Muir.

“If you watch film from any of the other 119 games I’ve coached here, you won’t see any violence taken by my team,” Welch said. “I don’t think that is right. But after that game, our team had been taunted and so poorly mistreated up there that we needed a way to vent our hostility.”

Last fall, Welch threatened to quit unless school administrators lightened his class load. He said that teaching four college preparatory English classes and being in charge of the football program was getting to be too heavy of a load.

“I was working too many hours and something had to give,” Welch said. “I love English, and I think my students enjoy my classes. But there were too many demands on my time and I needed a break.”

Although administrators first resisted, they eventually gave in and lightened Welch’s English class load and he announced he would stay.

The latest incident, however, caused the biggest flap.

The controversy started on May 19, when the Newhall Signal ran a photograph showing a Canyon football player in shorts hitting a blocking dummy with several teammates and an assistant coach watching. The photograph had been taken after school on May 7.

Southern Section rules prohibit football practice for longer than one class period a day after the season through May 20, and sleds and blocking dummies are not allowed.

Ten days after the photo had run, Commissioner Thomas ordered an investigation into the Canyon football program.

At a hearing on June 21, the Southern Section Executive Committee suspended Welch for a year. In a survey that ran in the Times’ Valley edition on June 27, the majority of football coaches in the San Fernando Valley endorsed that suspension.

“How long can people cheat and get away with it?” said George Hurley, Newbury Park’s coach. “Everybody reads and sees what a great coach (Welch) is. But the reason he is winning is because he cheats. And if you cheat hard enough, you can win a lot of games.”

At an appeal hearing in July, Bill White, Canyon’s principal, and Welch proposed a seven-step penalty that included prohibiting the coach from taking part in the team’s five nonleague games.

The proposal was rejected, and the appeal panel ordered a full investigation of Canyon’s football program.

Before the investigation was completed, however, White and Thomas struck a deal that lowered Welch’s suspension from one year to 5 1/2 months.

“If I violated rules, I deserved punishment,” Welch said. “But everyone deserves fairness and due process. Our school was coerced into taking the lighter penalty because of threats of further punishment. Stan Thomas absolutely has abused his power.

“I know the CIF isn’t a bad organization, but Harry Welch isn’t a bad person either,” he said. “It’s true that I am in charge of the football program, but I didn’t know about that practice and I wasn’t there. So is it fair that I be punished?”

White said the incident ruined his summer. Until the injunction was granted, he interviewed possible replacements for Welch after assistants Brian Stiman, who had been present at the illegal practice, and Enrique Lopez refused to step in and take over.

“We have a high-profile program here, and when things go good we all win,” White said. “But when things go bad, we all suffer.”

Last week, Welch was especially jubilant. Not only was he back on the job, but he had defeated the Southern Section. Although his world had seemed to be crumbling two months ago, he was back in charge and even had Thomas on the defensive.

“I guess we got beat up pretty good, but as far as I’m concerned the matter is closed,” Thomas said. “I have no control over the courts. I guess we are procedurally incorrect. Well, so be it.”

Thomas then announced that he was altering the section’s policy and would no longer involve it in personnel matters at member schools. Instead, he said, schools or teams would have to bear the brunt of punishment.

Canyon players, uncertain all summer who would be their coach, were relieved that their haggard leader was back in charge. They did not even seem to mind that Welch would begin his brutal 12-hour practice sessions Monday.

“The intensity was definitely lower (before the injunction),” linebacker Craig Reiter said. “To have the coach for so long, it would have been terrible to go into the season without him.”

Harry Welch at Canyon High

1982: 8-4, Golden League champion; lost to Lompoc, 27-17, in second round of Northwestern Conference playoffs.

1983: 13-1, Golden League champion; beat Torrance Bishop Montgomery, 40-24, in Northwestern Conference championship.*

1984: 14-0, Golden League champion; beat Santa Maria, 33-6, in Northwestern Conference championship.*

1985: 14-0. Golden League champion; beat Antelope Valley, 9-7, in Northwestern Conference championship.*

1986: 11-2, Golden League runner-up; lost to Pasadena Muir, 22-14, in Costal Conference semifinals.*

1987: 10-3, Golden League champion; lost to Oxnard Channel Islands, 42-6, in Costal Conference semifinals.

1988: 11-3, Golden League champion; lost to Antelope Valley, 28-22, in Division II championship game.

1989: 8-4-1, Golden League champion; lost to Santa Barbara, 28-27, in Division II semifinals.

1990: 11-2, Golden League runner-up; lost to Loyola, 10-3, in Division I semifinals.

* Canyon tied a state record with a 46-game winning streak from 1983-86.