New Coach Maintains Old Winning Ways : Girls’ basketball: Barfield keeps Lynwood High on track as Roberson’s replacement after controversy.

Ellis Barfield, first-year girls’ basketball coach at Lynwood High, considers his team as family. He is hoping that recent tough times will make the team even closer during the 1992-93 season.

Barfield took over the Lynwood program, one of the most successful in the state, when four-year Coach Maurice Roberson stepped down last September amid accusations of a Southern Section rules violation.

Curiously, it was Barfield who was named in the violation for coaching a team of Lynwood players in a club tournament last spring, a breach of the section’s off-season contact rule.

Dean Crowley, Southern Section associate commissioner, said several college coaches notified him of the alleged violation after seeing the Lynwood club in action. Crowley said the information was forwarded to officials at the school.

An unnamed area high school coach, who claimed he saw the violation, said two videotapes showing Barfield coaching the Lynwood players had been turned over to section officials.

Barfield was initially suspended from coaching for a season, but when Roberson resigned, school officials asked the section if it could modify the penalty to a one-week suspension and then make Barfield the head coach.

“The school dealt with it, dealt with it satisfactorily, and the case was closed,” Crowley said. “They did an excellent job of handling the problem.”

Roberson, 57, compiled a 103-16 record in four years and guided the Knights to the Regional Division I and Southern Section Division I-AA finals last season with a 28-3 record. His 1990 squad advanced to the Southern Section final, and his other two Lynwood teams were semifinalists. Roberson also was successful in two years at Riverside North High, going 44-9 in two seasons before coming to Lynwood.

But Roberson was as controversial as he was successful, frequently finding himself at odds with school and section officials, as well as basketball boosters at Lynwood.

Bill McGinis, Lynwood’s athletic director, acknowledged that the school’s investigation confirmed the violation and said school officials had taken steps to ensure that it would not be repeated.

“We had a problem with school coaches coaching the girls during the club season,” McGinis said. “It was a direct violation. There are certain CIF rules and regulations that everyone has to follow. Just because we’re one of the top programs, year in and year out, we can’t (flout) the rules.”

McGinis said it was “totally Maurice’s choice” to resign, noting that in addition to the violation, Roberson was also having “disagreements with the basketball boosters in the program.”

Roberson refused to discuss his resignation and the violation when contacted earlier this week.

“I’m really trying to put it behind me,” he said. “I don’t even want to think about it. The girls are doing all right and I don’t want to get into anything that will hurt them.”

But Roberson was highly critical of the Lynwood administration in a recent story published by The Times.

“I thought I needed to make a change,” Roberson said in that story. “Some of the directions that were taking place at Lynwood were not the way I wanted to be going.”

The repercussions have left Barfield contrite. He acknowledged the violation, but said he didn’t know about the rule when he was asked to coach the club by Roberson.

“For (the rules violation) to come along and break everything up really hurt,” Barfield said. “It was a mistake. You learn fast (that) you really have to stay in touch with the rules.”

The change from Roberson to Barfield is also being felt by the Lynwood players.

Tawana Grimes, Lynwood junior forward and captain, said: “At first, everyone was down about it, but we’re just trying to rise above it. It has made us stronger as a team.”

On the court, the results have been traditionally Lynwood. The Knights are 7-0; they won the Etiwanda tournament and have defeated two other Times top-20 teams, No. 10 Playa del Rey St. Bernard and No. 15 Torrance Bishop Montgomery.

The Knights lost 6-foot-4 center Janet Davis, point guard La Tasha Burnett and forward Shefonda Colbert to graduation.

But players such as Grimes, juniors Timicha Kirby and La Keesha Johnson, and seniors Shanel Tapusoa and Elana Adams have filled the void.

“The system is basically the same,” Barfield said. “We had tremendous depth last year (with) people who were ready to step in.”

Barfield’s family ties run deep in with the Lynwood program. He starred as a 6-3, all-league center for Lynwood’s boys’ team before playing two years at Rio Hondo JC.

Barfield, 27, began his coaching career assisting John Anderson in the Olympic Development League before returning to Lynwood as an assistant when his sister, Kim, played for the Knights.