Ex-Star Shining Again : Hart Standout Finds Life Better With Sobriety

Some thought the party was over. Really it was only beginning. Ultimately, it had ominous results.

After producing one sensational quarterback after another, the Hart High football program in 1987 seemed to lack a competent triggerman to run Coach Rick Scott’s high-powered passing attack. With the graduation of standout Jim Bonds the previous year, the word was that the Indians were ready to fall--hard.

But Scott, then the school’s football coach, believed he had the right guy for the job: Darren Renfro. Renfro, Bonds’ backup as a junior, was ready to shine.

And, eventually, he did. However, at the same time Renfro was toying with opponents on the field, he was allowing off-the-field adversaries--alcohol and drugs--to gain the upper hand. More than five autumns later, those foes are in check, and Renfro paid with years of suffering.

But in the fall of ‘87, there was little hint of a problem. Indeed, Renfro’s opponents seemed easily defeated. He assumed control of the Hart offense and furthered the school’s reputation as the best passing team in the area.

“A lot of people figured we would be no good without Jimmy, but I kept telling everyone that Renfro was going to be another great one,” said Scott, who now coaches at Buena. “I knew because he had the physical skills, but he also had that ‘X factor’ that all great quarterbacks need.

“He was real competitive and a little cocky, which is exactly what I like in my quarterbacks. I knew we wouldn’t miss a beat with Darren.”

True to his coach’s words, the senior left-hander continued the tradition of standout Hart quarterbacks. Renfro that season became the Indians’ fourth All-Southern Section quarterback, succeeding Bonds (‘85, ‘86), Jim’s older brother Tom (‘83) and Dean Herrington (‘81).

Three Hart quarterbacks who followed Renfro have been named All-Southern Section: Rob Westervelt (‘88, ‘89), Ryan Connors (‘90, ‘91) and Davis Delmatoff (‘92). Despite their success in high school, none has flourished at major colleges.

But all left their mark.

“Coach Scott went around telling everyone I would be the best quarterback in the Southern Section, which kind of put a little pressure on me,” Renfro, 22, said during a telephone interview from his home in Dallas. “But I had a golden opportunity with Coach because he liked to throw the ball.

“It really turned out great.”

Renfro was selected to The Times’ All-Valley team after passing for 2,808 yards and 26 touchdowns. He led the Indians to an 11-2 record, the Foothill League championship and to the playoff semifinals.

The beat on the field sounded as smooth as ever, although Renfro--a self-confessed rebel at the time--and Scott had their share of rocky moments.

They had words with each other after a home game at College of the Canyons over something neither can recall. After arguing with Scott, Renfro did not return to Hart with the team.

“I wound up having to call my parents to come and pick me up,” Renfro said. “We both said some things and stormed off.

“Yeah, I really had a little mouth on me back then, and Coach wouldn’t take that stuff. But we had a good relationship because he had a lot of confidence in me.”

Scott agreed.

“Darren sometimes thought he knew more than me, but I even knocked heads with Jimmy from time to time,” Scott said. “In a lot of ways, Darren made me look like a passing genius. People saw what we accomplished with Jimmy, and then Darren stepped in and was also great.

“Darren was Ken Stabler in a high school quarterback’s body. In terms of talent, Darren might have been the best of them all.”

For Renfro, reading defenses was child’s play; recognizing the physical and emotional havoc of substance abuse was impossible. He could not avoid alcohol and drugs the way he side-stepped would-be tacklers.

With winning came celebrating and Renfro celebrated often. However, what started as a little drinking with friends after football games became something Renfro could not control.

“It was just a social thing to begin with when I was a freshman,” Renfro said. “But over time it stopped being just a social thing. It became something I did a lot.”

The impact of Renfro’s problems with alcohol and drugs hit home quickly.

“It was very difficult on our family just like it would be difficult on any family that goes through something like that,” said Darren’s mother, Diana, a school nurse at Hart. “Obviously, there was a lot of turmoil and denial in our family.

“At first you say to yourself that this is not your child . . . that this is not happening to you. As a parent you wonder if you could have done something a little differently. It hurts.”

Talking about those days is difficult for Renfro. He struggles to explain, while holding back some things, who he was and the things he did.

“I don’t want this to be about war stories and that kind of stuff,” Renfro said. “It’s about today. I can’t go back and change that stuff, I can only deal with what’s going on now.”

Despite his banner season, Renfro, at 5-foot-9, was not recruited by NCAA Division I schools because of his size. The snub made Renfro more depressed and more dependent on alcohol and drugs.

“I was the MVP of the team, all-section and (on The Times’ Valley team), and I didn’t get to go anywhere,” Renfro said. “I won all these awards and it was hard when I saw a bunch of my teammates go on to universities.”

Said Jim Bonds: “He was just such a phenomenal athlete. If he was a little taller he’d still be playing.”

Renfro stresses he does not attribute his substance abuse problems to the pressures--and disappointments--of football. While no longer involved in organized athletics, he still enjoys watching sports on TV and is an avid Cowboy fan.

“No, football had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I went out to parties (after games) and things like that, but I would have done that even if I wasn’t playing football.

“That was just the way I was then.”

Renfro attended Bakersfield College after graduation and was a member of the football team. Frustrated with being second string, he quit the team after his freshman year and left school.

“I think that was a really tough time for Darren,” Scott said. “He watched Jimmy being recruited by so many schools and he wasn’t.

“He was going through a lot.”

After leaving Bakersfield, Renfro returned to Valencia and worked for a cable company in Canyon Country for about a year. But he again grew restless with his surroundings and decided it was time for another change. In 1990 he moved to Dallas, where he has relatives. His use of alcohol and drugs continued until he realized he had a problem and needed help.

“It wasn’t any one thing that made me do it, I just couldn’t live like that anymore,” he said. “A bunch of people I didn’t know were controlling my life, and I wanted to get my life back.

“I suffered through some hard times and I wanted them to stop.”

Renfro checked into a drug rehabilitation clinic in early 1992. He said he has been sober and drug free for a year. He periodically attends support-group meetings.

“Being sober is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said. “Every day I don’t drink or use drugs is a great day. I can’t believe the way my life used to be then.

“I’ve turned my life totally around.”

He now spends his days working as an office manager at a company that produces business personnel forms and helping to spread the word about the problems of alcohol and drug dependency. Renfro is involved with a group that visits junior highs and high schools in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and talks to students about substance abuse.

“Each kid is going to choose their own path, all I can do is share my experience and strength and hope they take the right road,” Renfro said. “I tell them what happened to me and hopefully it can help them.”

Renfro’s family is overjoyed with his new lifestyle. The emotional bond he shares with his parents and two younger brothers was severed neither by his problems nor the miles that separate them.

His parents have visited him twice in Dallas, and he returned home to Valencia during the Christmas holidays for the first time since he relocated.

“I’m just so very proud of him,” Diana said. “I know how hard he has worked for himself and how hard he has worked to try to help others.

“We knew that it was something he needed to do, but he needed to understand that. Ultimately it was his choice.”

Current Hart Coach Mike Herrington, who was an assistant under Scott, had a chance to visit with Renfro during his trip home. He was pleased with what he saw.

“I’m glad to see that things are working out now for him,” Herrington said. “People sometimes have problems in life that you hope they can straighten out and become successful.

“It’s good to see Darren doing that.”

Said Renfro: “It was really hard on my family and friends back then, but now I have a better relationship than ever with them. One of the things I learned in rehab is that I can’t stay sober by myself, I can’t do this thing alone. I need the support of the people who care about me.

“I know I have that.”

The party is over. Renfro has his life back.