Welch Reflects on Career by Tipping Cap to Friends, Foes Alike

Harry Welch quietly announced he was retiring from coaching and by Tuesday his telephone was ringing. Repeatedly.

“I just got off the phone with Aaron Emmanuel, who wasn’t even one of my own players,” said Welch, now the former coach at Canyon High.

Emmanuel, a running back at USC and Quartz Hill High, told Welch he was considering a career in coaching. Who better to talk to than Welch, a coach he tried desperately to beat in his prep days and a man he had come to admire later.

One day after Welch resigned his football job, his call-waiting service was overloaded. Some were well-wishers. Some were coaches who were not bashful in their interest to replace the winningest coach in the Valley.

“I’ve talked to about 50 people today,” said Welch, who sounded in midseason form: stressed and tired, but not too tired to talk. Especially now that the flood of memories that came from 12 seasons, 119 victories and three Southern Section championships.

“Aaron Emmanuel and Tommie Smith (of Antelope Valley) were the most memorable players I coached against,” Welch said. “They were men among boys.”

Who was his favorite among his own players?

“Can’t say,” Welch said. “They’re all so different and so special. I promise you, I’ll carry them with me to my grave.”

Three consecutive section titles, a section record-tying 46 victories in a row, eight consecutive semifinal appearances in the playoffs. Welch won nearly 80% of his games at Canyon.

But what he remembers most is not always happy.

The infamous 28-27 playoff loss at Santa Barbara in 1989 will forever burn. Welch recalled how drunken partisan fans threatened Cowboy fans during the game and how the out-of-towners required a police escort out. Welch launched a postgame tirade in which he destroyed a trophy case.

With time running out in the game, Santa Barbara was allowed to run six plays within the Canyon four yard-line until the Dons scored. Time expired before the play on which Santa Barbara scored. Without explanation, the officials let them run another play.

“The officials were honest men that became intimidated by the crowd,” Welch said. “They were not anti-Canyon, but they created phantom situations (that allowed Santa Barbara to win). My kids were out there bruised and bloody. It was scary, it was awful.

“That was singularly my most memorable game. That was the worst situation that I’ve ever been involved in.”

Welch lost to archrival Hart six of the last seven seasons. Some people will tell you the Hart game was the only one that mattered. And so Welch took his hat off to former Indian coaches Carl Sweet and Rick Scott, and current coaches Mike, Rick and Dean Herrington.

“(Hart has) always been so darn well-coached and has ticked me off,” Welch said. “It was a bittersweet, marvelous rivalry. There ought to be more positives about it.”

From Tom and Jim Bonds to Mike Kocicka, Welch went to bed at night trying to think of ways to stop Hart quarterbacks who have made All-Southern Section teams nine consecutive seasons and 10 times during Welch’s tenure.

“It’s been a nightmare and an honor going against those guys,” Welch said.

Then 1982 popped into mind. It was Welch’s first season with the Cowboys, who had never won a league championship since the school opened in 1965. Canyon went 5-0 in Golden League games, becoming the first team to go undefeated in league play. The Cowboys knocked off defending section champion Antelope Valley, 14-7, in their first league game under Welch and beat Temple City for their first playoff victory. The Rams had a record 46 consecutive victories to that point.

In 1984, amid Canyon’s own 46-win streak, the Cowboys faced adversity. First-round playoff opponent Santa Maria St. Joseph, which led, 7-0, in the fourth quarter at Santa Maria. This was not a foreshadowing of the Santa Barbara travesty, but a glimpse of the character of his teams.

“It had been raining pretty well all day and all evening, and it was slippery and sloshy,” said Welch, who called on an inexperienced sophomore, Ken Sollom, to complete passes. “I thought with his large hands he’d be able to hold onto the ball.”

Sollom threw a touchdown pass to Dave Sipes in the final minute and Canyon won, 8-7. A year later, Sollom was again waiting in the wings while quarterback John Watkins had kept the Cowboys undefeated. But after Watkins went down with an injury, Sollom threw four touchdown passes in a 53-0 rout of Serra in the first round of the playoffs.

Sollom outdueled Jim Bonds in memorable 6-3 and 42-32 victories over Hart and earned a scholarship to Michigan.

But by then Welch wondered if he had created a monster. He had conditioned the fans to expect perfect seasons.

In 1985, Canyon beat Antelope Valley, 30-6, to end the regular season. Four weeks later, as the Cowboys beat the Antelopes again to win their third section title in a row, Welch heard a chorus of boos from his own fans.

“They came as the final gun went off,” Welch said. “That should have struck a chord. We only won, 9-7.”

In 1986, Antelope Valley tackled Sollom on an option run to thwart a two-point conversion attempt and beat Canyon, 21-20, halting the winning streak at 46. The next day, a stranger in a convenience store told Welch he made a mistake by running the option.

Said Welch: “I should have known then that the rest of it would be a tough road.”

Harry Welch’s 12 Years at Canyon Year: 1982 Record: 8-4 League: 1st Season highlight: Welch takes over team that was 5-4 the previous season.

*Year: 1983 Record: 13-1 League: 1st Season highlight: Canyon wins first of three consecutive Southern Section championships.

*Year: 1984 Record: 14-0 League: 1st Season highlight: Arguably Welch’s best team ever.

*Year: 1985 Record: 14-0 League: 1st Season highlight: Winning streak reaches 38 games with third consecutive section title.

*Year: 1986 Record: 11-2 League: 2nd Season highlight: Canyon winning streak ends at 46 games with 21-20 loss to Antelope Valley.

*Year: 1987 Record: 10-3 League: 1st Season highlight: Overachieving Cowboys reach semifinals, losing to Channel Islands, 42-6.

*Year: 1988 Record: 11-3 League: 1st Season highlight: Antelope Valley edges Canyon in section championship game, 28-22.

*Year: 1989 Record: 8-4-1 League: 1st Season highlight: Canyon loses controversial “extra-down” game to Santa Barbara, 28-27.

*Year: 1990 Record: 11-2 League: 2nd Season highlight: In Hawaii, Cowboys end 55-game winning streak by Honolulu St. Louis, 40-0.

*Year: 1991 Record: 6-6* League: 3rd Season highlight: Streak of eight consecutive semifinal playoff appearances snapped.

*Year: 1992 Record: 7-4 League: 3rd Season highlight: Canyon loses first-round playoff game for first time in Welch’s tenure.

*Year: 1993 Record: 6-4 League: 2nd Season highlight: Canyon again loses in first round. Welch hints at retirement after scuffle with booster.

*Canyon forfeited a victory and a tie for using an ineligible player.