Efforts of Assistants Hailed at SD High : High school football: Perone says there are benefits to having off-campus coaches.

If they are paid at all, it’s slave wages at best. The hours are long, conditions often miserable, and like umpires, the only time anyone acknowledges their existence is when someone feels they screwed up.

This time, however, these guys haven’t goofed: Steve Hembera, Juan Burgoine, Ernest Mars, Larry Van Dusen, Joe Devillar, Steve Potts, Marvin Smith, Bob Smith, Ron Evans, Fabian Reyes, Carl LeGrone and Ed Moore.

Assistant football coaches to everyone else, they are “saviors” to Bob Perone, a 65-year-old rookie head coach at San Diego High School.

“I just can’t say enough about my coaches,” said Perone, who nonetheless tried.

“Most of our success on the field is really due to our staff. They’re so important. You know, I might not be the greatest football coach in the world, but I feel I do have some organizational skills. I’ve been able to put together what I feel is a really great staff. They’re just great people, and they’re from all walks of life. They relate very, very well to the kids.”

What’s more, all but Hembera, a former head coach for two years at San Diego, do not teach at the school and most of them are volunteers.

And that can be a plus, says Perone, himself an off-campus coach.

“I feel very strongly about off-campus coaches,” Perone said. “I think in a lot of cases, the kid is uncomfortable with the fact that his coach is also his teacher. And that does happen a lot of times.

“He can be completely uninhibited with us because we’re not his parents. We’re not his teachers. We’re just coaches. We’re there, and as a consequence, I think we get a lot of good feedback from the kid.”

Earl Hines, San Diego’s athletic director, said once Perone indicated he was interested in the job, it was his.

“I know his convictions,” Hines said. “I know exactly what the man stands for.

“We’re just talking about a game, but the kids who play that game have to live a life when they leave here. If we can give them something positive to help them live that life, we feel we have succeeded. And Bob, I feel, has already succeeded.

“Just look at the assistant coaches we have. They gravitate to him and most of them are here on a voluntary basis.”

Perone, a former newspaper man and now part owner of a lucrative photography lab, says the media too often have been slanted in stories about off-campus coaches.

“There have been a lot of stories on walk-on coaches, but they always focus on the negative,” he said. “Just once I’d like to see a story on the positive aspects of walk-ons.

“Not only here, but there are a number of quality walk-on coaches throughout the county. (Many of them) don’t get paid. Their interest is strictly with the kids.”

In the 13 years Perone has been involved with San Diego, there have been six head varsity coaches--Stan Murphy, Scotty Harris, Hines, Hembera, Bill Williams and Art Anderson.

Williams was the only walk-on coach, and Anderson last year was the first coach to take the Cavers to the playoffs since 1969.

Perone, it should be noted, is in the majority when he lists assistant coaches as the saviors of football programs.

At a press conference before last year’s section championships, to a man, El Camino’s Herb Meyer, La Jolla’s Dick Huddleston, Point Loma’s Bennie Edens and Vista’s Dick Haines praised their assistants repeatedly, saying they could never have gotten there without their help.

“We used to get it done with two guys,” Meyer said. “But those days are long gone. My assistant coaches are invaluable to me and my program.”

Perone added: “I’m not knocking teachers. Bennie, Herb Meyer, (Morse’s) John Shacklett, these are great people. Earl Hines, he’s the greatest athletic director anyone could ask for. Steve Hembera is a great coach, and a great person and a great friend.

“But I think the school system has got to utilize these (off-campus) people in a way it can be a great benefit. There’s a great source there.

“A lot of people say, ‘Hey, they aren’t teachers.’ That’s not true. They’re damn good teachers. Ask the kids.”