An Acrimonious Tie-Breaker : Canyon’s Hiring of Former Thousand Oaks Coaches Shatters Allegiances

The recent hiring by Canyon High of embattled former Thousand Oaks football assistants Paul Gomes and Larry Mohr has caused shock waves that will continue until the teams meet in a nonleague game in the fall.

Gomes, whose 14-year career at Thousand Oaks ended last fall amid rancor and lawsuits, and Mohr, a 12-year Lancer assistant who had to sue to collect his ’92 coaching stipend, have been welcomed with open arms by Canyon Coach Harry Welch.

“I’m really excited,” Welch said. “I think they are great coaches. Thousand Oaks lost two beautiful human beings.

“To find the kind of coaches who can communicate and care, whew, this is the best thing that ever happened to kids at Canyon High.”

In addition, three key players from Thousand Oaks have transferred to Canyon: Brian Shubin, a junior quarterback whom Welch describes as having “tremendous skills,” and brothers Joey and Jimmy Robles, both talented linebackers.

Shubin’s family moved into the Canyon attendance area in April, a month before Gomes and Mohr were hired at Canyon, and the Robles family is attempting to sell or lease its home in Thousand Oaks and move to Canyon Country. All three players are participating in summer workouts at Canyon.

Gomes and Mohr, Thousand Oaks graduates who were co-captains on the Lancers’ 1976 Marmonte League champion team, helped coach the Lancers to a Southern Section championship in 1987 and to an impressive string of winning seasons.

Gomes was terminated with two games to play in the 1992 season after a dispute with Coach Bob Richards and Thousand Oaks administrators, and filed suit against the Conejo Valley Unified School District, seeking to expunge files pertaining to the firing. The suit was dismissed two weeks ago in Ventura County Municipal Court and Gomes is appealing.

Gomes said Wednesday he plans to sue the district for monetary damages. “I just want all the details surrounding the incident to come out in court, to be made public,” Gomes said.

Neither Gomes nor Richards is willing to discuss those details, and Richards declined comment for this story. Gomes ostensibly was fired for “verbally abusing a player,” but apparently the rift went far deeper, including a disagreement over the playing time of Richards’ son, Robbie, a senior linebacker last season.

“There were so many things that happened that people wouldn’t believe,” Mohr said.

Gomes, who is close to earning master’s degrees at Azusa Pacific, discovered that finding coaching employment elsewhere is difficult. In the spring, he applied for an opening as an assistant at Moorpark College, and much of the interview process was spent discussing the events at Thousand Oaks.

“That situation at T.O. was so muddied and cloudy, you hated to try to sort it out,” said Jim Bittner, Moorpark’s head coach. “I know Richards and have every respect for Gomes and Mohr. When those people are at opposite ends of the spectrum, it’s puzzling.”

Richards apparently feels betrayed that Welch, a longtime friend, hired Gomes and Mohr.

“(Richards) is pretty bitter about it,” said a current Thousand Oaks player who declined to be identified. “He doesn’t talk about it but you can tell when the subject comes up.”

During a telephone conversation in April, Welch told Richards that if Richards would rehire Gomes and Mohr at Thousand Oaks, he would not offer them jobs. “(Richards) told me, ‘They won’t be coming back to Thousand Oaks,’ ” Welch said. “Therefore, I felt free to (hire them).”

Welch also hired Mike Gomes, Paul’s brother and another longtime Thousand Oaks assistant, as a sophomore coach.

“They are good coaches and I am finding each day that they are better people than they are coaches,” Welch said.

Joey Robles, a 5-8, 170-pound senior outside linebacker, and his brother Jimmy, a 6-1, 185-pound junior inside linebacker, developed close relationships with Paul and Mike Gomes. The players convinced their parents to enroll them at Canyon.

“They are both hard-nosed kids who give you everything they have,” Paul Gomes said. “They fit in well at Canyon.”

Joe Robles, the boys’ father and a member of the Thousand Oaks booster club for several years, hoped all along his sons would remain at Thousand Oaks. The boys, however, felt differently.

“I have nothing against the T.O. program and I like Coach Richards,” said Joe Robles, a fireman who recently was transferred from Chatsworth to the Newhall area. “But this is what my sons want and I live for my kids. (My wife and I) were against it, but they kept pursuing it. We were going to move (to the Santa Clarita Valley) eventually anyway.”

According to Brian Shubin’s father, Steve, Brian’s transfer was coincidental to the hiring of Gomes and Mohr. Steve Shubin recently relocated his cleaning business from West Los Angeles to the Santa Clarita Valley and before moving checked into the football programs at Hart and Saugus in addition to Canyon.

“No one is going to believe that it’s not connected to Gomes going there when truly it is not the case,” Steve Shubin said. “Paul introduced himself to me after Brian had enrolled at Canyon and I’d never heard of Harry Welch until coming here.

“I would say this on my children’s lives: Brian was not recruited by the Canyon football program.”

Gomes and Mohr are ecstatic to be coaching in a program as strong as Canyon’s. In 11 seasons under Welch, the Cowboys have won seven league and three Southern Section titles and have a 9-1-1 record against Thousand Oaks.

Yet for nearly two decades, Gomes and Mohr were central to the Thousand Oaks program.

“I feel devastated,” Mohr said. “Thousand Oaks High was my life, then we were nobodys, nobody wanted to hear us out, we were pushed aside. There’s no place I’d rather coach than at Thousand Oaks. But I have to carry on. They don’t want me back.”

Gomes and Mohr will return to Thousand Oaks High as part of the Canyon staff Sept. 24 when the Lancers play host to the Cowboys.

“That will be an emotional experience,” Mohr said.