Carson Coach May Have Resigned Under Pressure

Marty Blankenship resigned Friday as Carson High’s football coach amid rumors that he was pressured to step down by the administration.

Blankenship, 44, didn’t deny the rumors, but he said the decision was mostly his own.

“I wanted to come back, but I also had to look at what it takes to have a winning program,” he said. “The formula just isn’t there anymore.”

The next coach might have something to say about that. For Blankenship, though, what was once a labor of love became labor during his two seasons in charge of the Colts. He coached Carson to a 15-9-1 record, including a spot in the City Section 4-A Division title game last season.

With only one full-time assistant on his staff last season, Blankenship said coaching became a grind. It was different when he was an assistant under Gene Vollnogle, who retired after the 1990 season as the winningest coach in state history. Vollnogle had three full-time assistants in his last season, as well as an on-staff B coach.

But cutbacks in the L.A. Unified School District have forced schools to do without full-time coaches and a junior varsity program, which was dropped by the City Section two years ago.

“Vollnogle had the luxury of having four or five or six assistants on staff at the school,” Blankenship said. “It was the same with (former Banning coach) Chris Ferragamo. I don’t have a great support staff at the school.

“It just seemed like I was wearing so many hats and spread so thin, it was hard to excel at any one job. When it came down to X’s and O’s, it affected the team. I know it affected me. Friday nights are great. It’s between Friday and the next game that’s the problem.

“I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t give myself a chance to go at it three, four, five years, but I’ll tell you, I was burned out.”

Living up to expectations also plagued Blankenship. Under Vollnogle, Carson won eight City Section championships and was runner-up eight times in 28 seasons. In the first season after Vollnogle left, Blankenship and co-coach Jim D’Amore guided the Colts to a 6-5-1 record, the school’s worst mark since 1968. After the 1991 season, D’Amore resigned, leaving Blankenship to fend for himself.

The pressure to win seemed to reach a peak last season after Carson started 0-2-1. This was after the Colts began 1992 as the No. 2-ranked team in the nation by USA Today. After the poor start, Principal Dhyan Lal forced Blankenship to add Steve Clarkson, a former Carson assistant, to the coaching staff in an effort to revive the Colts’ anemic offense.

Looking back, Lal acknowledged that he might have undermined Blankenship’s authority by taking such action.

“Perhaps inadvertently I put some pressure on him that could have had a hand in his decision (to resign),” Lal said. “When individuals called me to complain (about the football team), I reminded them of Gene Bartow, who took over after John Wooden left UCLA. There was nothing he could do that was right. I think Mr. Blankenship was in the same position.”

Carson turned its season around after adding Clarkson, winning nine of its last 11 games. But an upset loss to rival Banning and a 17-0 defeat to Sylmar in the 4-A championship game--ending a streak of 147 games in which Carson had scored--put Blankenship back in the hot seat.

Lal said he might have listened to the complaints of parents and fans more than he should have.

“People’s expectations are very high,” Lal said. “People probably did not want to accept (losing). If that’s what happens to the next coach, are we going to do the same thing? I would like to say no. I mean, I certainly won’t do that because I’m going to be in the selection process.”

Lal, Athletic Director Saul Pacheco and assistant principal Elmer Garrett will select a new coach as soon as possible, Lal said. One of the leading candidates reportedly is Dave Williams, who coached Carson’s B team to league titles each of the past three seasons.

Williams, who is already on staff at Carson, is highly regarded among the school’s coaches. One scenario has Williams being named coach, and D’Amore returning as defensive coordinator, a position he held for many years under Vollnogle.

When Harry Jenkins was the Redondo High baseball coach, his teams regularly played night home games under the lights in an atmosphere that was exciting for players and fans.

But that atmosphere was missing during Jenkins’ first two seasons as coach at West Torrance. The Warriors, whose field does not have lights, play their home games during the day.

This season, Jenkins has found a way to play home games at night without adding lights at West. Starting Friday, the Warriors will play the first of five night home games at El Segundo Recreation Park.

Although the opponent is El Segundo, West will be the home team for the 7:30 p.m. Pioneer League game. All three of West’s league games against El Segundo will be played at Recreation Park, with the Warriors serving as the home team twice.

“We’ll get more scouts and parents to the games,” said West Athletic Director Fred Petersen, who supported the idea. “It’s a positive thing.”

Petersen said some of the other Pioneer League coaches were reluctant to play their home games on another field. But with West and El Segundo as the primary participants, several league doubleheaders will be played on Friday nights at Recreation Park this season.

“The Moore League did the same thing a few years ago at Blair Field in Long Beach,” Jenkins said. “They had success with crowds.”

Vaimagalo Faavi-Tua’au, who quarterbacked Banning’s football team for the past two seasons, will graduate from rival Carson after transferring during the winter break.

Faavi-Tua’au said the transfer was based on his family recently moving to the Carson district, and his close relationship with Lal, the Carson principal.

“It’s mostly because my pops (Lal) is here,” Faavi-Tua’au said. “To me, school seems better here. I get better grades here than at Banning. I can’t say it’s because of the school. I just like the attitude around here.”

Faavi-Tua’au’s transfer takes him full circle. He started classes at Carson as a sophomore, but transferred to Banning after one semester when it was discovered that he actually lived in the Banning district of Carson. He tried to transfer back to Carson before his senior year but was talked out of it by Lal because of the controversy it would have caused.

Faavi-Tua’au, an All-City Section selection, signed a letter of intent to play football for Nevada Las Vegas.

Notes

Three players on the Bishop Montgomery girls’ soccer team have been named to All-Southern Section Division II teams. Freshman striker Michelle Kallas, who led the Knights with 26 goals and six assists, was named to the first team, senior halfback Alisa Schiappa was named to the second team and junior goalie Celeste Adams was a third-team selection. Bishop Montgomery (19-6-3) won its second consecutive Mission League title and reached the quarterfinals of the Division II playoffs. . . . Morningside was ranked 15th and Serra was 18th in the final boys’ state basketball Super 20 by Cal-Hi Sports.