Ker Abused His Position of Trust, Players Contend : Women’s volleyball: Charismatic Northridge coach said to have exploited the strong relationships he built.

Walt Ker, one of the most successful women’s volleyball coaches in NCAA Division II history, built his success at Cal State Northridge on coaching acumen and the warm, personal relationships he developed with his players.

Through the force of his magnetic personality, Ker attracted outstanding athletes to Northridge. He helped them choose their classes, apartments and roommates. He counseled them, often holding long one-on-one meetings after matches.

In the off-season, Ker shared meals with players and chatted with them in bars. He was considerate and comforting, and he gained their admiration, trust and loyalty.

But Ker’s 18-year coaching career ended Jan. 7 when he abruptly and inexplicably resigned, saying only that he wanted to spend more time with his family. A few weeks later, it emerged that two members of the 1992 team had filed a written complaint accusing him of sexual harassment.

Ker’s abuse of his position has gone beyond that, according to some women he has coached. They say that on various occasions since the early 1980s, Ker had consensual sexual relations with players.

Ker denied the allegations of sexual harassment and declined comment on charges that he had relations with players.

“I’ve resigned from Northridge to prioritize my life with my family,” he said in a prepared statement this week. “I have a deep sense that being a good father and good husband are the most important jobs in my life. We have new goals in our lives. I’m currently studying for my real estate license.”

Northridge officials have declined comment other than to say that they accept Ker’s reasons for his resignation.

Nevertheless, the allegations have cast a pall over the successful Northridge women’s volleyball program, throwing recruiting efforts into disarray. After five candidates for Ker’s job either turned down the position or an opportunity to be interviewed, the school last week selected John Price, the men’s volleyball coach, to direct the women’s program for one year.

The Ker case also puts a spotlight on a fine line that coaches must tread--the line between close, compassionate coaching and abusing the trust that athletes and their parents often confer on coaches.

“If you make an impact and you have trust, you have the opportunity to develop a relationship and that’s good as long as you don’t cross the line,” says University of Arizona Coach Dave Rubio, one of Ker’s closest friends in the coaching fraternity and one of the coaches who spurned an offer to replace Ker at Northridge.

“In the long run, maybe the profession is better off for it,” said Rubio, who played for Ker at Northridge and was one of his assistants. “Through tragedy, in a sense, things are already happening. I’m a very affectionate person and I have a new awareness about it.”

When he resigned, the 39-year-old Ker said that he wanted to spend more time with his wife, the former Cathy Miceli, and their three sons. Ker coached Miceli, an All-American, at Northridge in 1978-80. The two were married in 1984.

Ker also denied assertions by two current players--Heather Anderson and Ana Kristich--that at a postseason team meeting he acknowledged his misconduct, apologized for it and told players he would seek counseling.

Those who played for and coached against Ker describe him as an excellent recruiter, powerful motivator and a superb tactician. He was viewed as a charming, gregarious, self-confident coach who went the extra mile for his players, whether they had academic or personal problems.

Heather Hafner, a three-time All-American in the early 1980s, said she was unaware of any misconduct by Ker. She credited him with helping her develop as a player and person.

“Without his level of compassion and patience, I would have been out of there,” Hafner said. “He was personable. He cared about his players. If you had a problem, you could go to him.”

Yet Ker also drove players from the program because of his unwelcome sexual advances, according to two players who transferred out of Northridge. One of the former players who had a sexual relationship with Ker said she felt hurt, used and betrayed by him.

“Mentally it was not (consensual), physically it was,” she said. “The advances were unwelcome and the advances were turned down at times.”

That player said she tried to repress memories of her encounters with Ker because she was haunted by confusing emotions. Within the past year, however, when a current team member told her that Ker was making advances, painful memories--coupled with anger and disgust--surfaced.

“You don’t know exactly whose fault it was,” she said.

“You feel used and taken advantage of. It’s hard because Walt Ker is a very articulate person. He’s very good at telling you what you want to hear. And he’s very influential. He has power over people and he uses that power over people.

“He’s very compassionate and caring and he has a way of making you do what he wants you to do. People in Walt’s position who have done things like that, they don’t realize the effect they have on people. If Walt was a jerk, it would be easier to let it go. When you respect and care for someone and this happens, the effect is longer lasting. You wonder why it happened. And why you let it happen.”

A player from the late 1980s recalls that Ker established exceptionally close ties with her.

“I entrusted him with when to study, when to practice, when to eat,” she said. “You become completely dependent. He became a father figure. He was almost on a pedestal.”

After her freshman season, she told The Times that he abused that trust by making unwelcome sexual advances toward her.

“He took advantage of people so they didn’t have a clear head,” she said. “He’s like a magnet. People wanted to be close to him.”

One of the former players who had a sexual relationship with Ker recalls that she was flattered by his initial approach.

“Everyone he has approached was a bit flattered, initially, because we’ve known him for several years and trusted and liked him,” she said. “And when any man or person you trust to such an extent expresses interest, your initial reaction is flattery, and a lot of shock, at the same time.”

The player said she assumed she was the only member of the team who was sexually involved with Ker.

“Walt makes it clear that this should be kept private,” she said. “That’s why a lot of players didn’t know it happened to each other.”

Even those closest to Ker, including Price, were surprised when they learned of the allegations. They say they had no hint of Ker’s alleged misconduct.

Erin Tomblin, the team’s top assistant last fall, was one of more than a dozen people interviewed for this story who said they were stunned by the charges filed by 1992 team members. Tomblin, who said she believes the players’ allegations, criticized herself for being unaware of the players’ complaints.

“I’m upset that I didn’t realize it was happening,” she said. “I honestly had no idea this was happening.”

Current and former players say Ker often referred to sex and joked about it. Yet, they assert, he kept his involvement with players a secret by relying on their loyalty to him.

One of the former players who said she had a sexual relationship with Ker believes the two players filed a complaint against Ker after they realized they weren’t alone as targets, thus breaking the code of secrecy.

“When they got together, it became more clear that what was going on was wrong,” she said. “It took extremely courageous people to do that. If it were two different people, he might still be coaching at Northridge.”

One of the players on the ’92 team who brought the sexual harassment complaint against Ker said she was hesitant to report his alleged misconduct because of its potential effect on his career and his marriage. She said she waited almost a year to report his actions to the university’s Committee to Receive Allegations of Sexual Harassment.

“Nothing would have happened to him if it wasn’t for my strong belief that this shouldn’t go on,” she said. “He would have stayed and kept doing it. He’s not going to do it any more.”

Born in Tracy, Calif., in 1953, Ker grew up in the San Fernando Valley where his father, George, was the Valley College football coach from 1956-63 and the track and field coach until the mid-1980s.

At Granada Hills High, Ker earned seven varsity letters, including three each in basketball and track and field.

“He was one of the great kids, one of the All-American kids,” said Granada Hills High basketball Coach Bob Johnson, who taught Ker at Patrick Henry Junior High and coached him at Granada Hills.

“He was an outstanding athlete. A hard worker. You can’t say enough good things about him.”

Ker played basketball and volleyball at Valley College and Northridge and founded the boys’ volleyball program at Granada Hills.

From 1977 to ‘79, Ker coached the men’s volleyball team at CSUN and from ’79 to ’85 he coached the men’s and women’s teams, posting a 137-114-1 record in nine years as men’s coach.

He coached only the women for an additional eight seasons and finished with a 401-143 record, including three Division II national championships and five runners-up finishes.

Ron Yukelson, who worked closely with Ker from 1980-85 as Northridge sports information director, said that Ker was dedicated, hard-working and loyal.

“I saw Walt as a compassionate, humanistic person but one who you knew was the coach of the team,” Yukelson said.

“My sense was that Walt was a lot closer to his teams than other coaches I worked with. He was able to bridge the fine line between coaching and friendship.”

Andy Banachowski, coach of three Division I national championship teams at UCLA, was impressed by the rapid transition Northridge made from the Division II to the Division I ranks in 1990.

“Walt built his reputation as a good teacher of the sport,” Banachowski said. “Recruiting against UCLA and USC for Northridge is a tough call. He recognized that and didn’t necessarily try to go head-to-head.

“He’d go after a good athlete, someone new to the sport or a good basketball or softball player and he tried to transfer that athletic ability. His teams always played us very competitively. It’s unfortunate that he’s no longer in the coaching ranks.”

Rubio described Ker as one of the best teachers in the game.

“He has an incredible eye for deciding what’s wrong and he has a gift to communicate it so players understand,” Rubio said. “Obviously, I’m a little bit biased because he’s done so much for me on and off the court, but I know over the years he’s gone out of his way to teach a lot more than bump, set and spike.

“I know a lot of players who wouldn’t make it without Walt. He teaches you a little bit about life and he allows you to lean on him when things go wrong in your personal life. I’m where I am at a very young age (33), and a lot of it is because of what Walt has taught me.”

Ker cultivated such loyalty that Anderson, a sophomore hitter on the ’92 team, hoped that he would remain as coach despite the harassment charges.

“If he came back I think we would have accepted him,” Anderson said. “I think he knows he did wrong. I understand (Northridge administrators) not wanting to give him a second chance, but we would have given him a second chance.”

Anderson now fears for the future of the program, blaming Ker even though she still feels sympathy for him.

“I’m upset with everything he’s done,” she said. “He’s ruined everything. Now we’re not getting the recruits we wanted to. We’re basically getting (a bad deal).

“But I feel sorry for him. Everybody feels sorry for him.”

Also distressed by the events are parents.

“You know . . . (the coach) will influence their life,” said Terri Martin, mother of Hart High senior volleyball player Shannon Martin.

“So you do hope that someone is trustworthy and will lead your daughter in the right way.”

Shannon Martin, who was planning to attend Northridge, changed her mind after Ker resigned but before the sexual harassment allegations became public. She now plans to attend Arizona. Rubio fears that the public has the wrong impression of Ker, judging him only by the allegations and dismissing the rest of his 18-year career.

“I think that the general feeling is that Walt is a bad person,” Rubio said. “No one who knows him would say that’s correct. That is an injustice.

“People make mistakes--and realize I’m not trivializing it--people who make mistakes, maybe they know it’s wrong and for whatever reason they can’t stop. Walt was a man who made a great impact on his players, more positive than negative, though I realize there was some negative.”