Montclair Prep Remains an Outsider Because Program Is . . . : Preceded by Its Reputation

Montclair Prep is no ordinary high school.

The college preparatory school with an enrollment of about 350 looks more like the apartment buildings and cheap motels that surround it on Sepulveda Boulevard than an academic institution.

But what Montclair Prep might lack in size and cosmetics it makes up for with its athletic reputation--good or otherwise.

The school has produced nearly two dozen Division I football players in the last decade, including San Francisco 49er Toi Cook. The school’s last three running backs--Derek Sparks (Washington State), Eliel Swinton (Stanford) and Wilbert Smith (Illinois)--earned college scholarships.

In baseball, Brad Fullmer, a 1993 graduate, received a $417,500 signing bonus and is considered a top prospect with the Montreal Expos.

Football coaches and athletic directors from Ojai to San Diego are keenly aware of the little school that packs a powerful punch in the sporting world.

And that’s part of the problem.

Montclair Prep has one of the most-controversial legacies in the Southern Section, one which few can forget--or forgive. Although it has been four years since Montclair Prep was banned from the playoffs amid charges of recruiting violations, grade tampering and nonpayment of tuition by athletes, the stigma remains.

Montclair Prep is in its third year as a free-lance school since Alpha League members voted to oust the Mounties. And it might be another three years before the exile ends.

”. . . You need a unanimous vote (to get into a league),” said Greg Reece, athletic director at Montclair Prep. “I think it’s very doubtful. (But) I think (Southern Section Commissioner) Dean Crowley is doing everything he can.”

Life without a league has created a scheduling nightmare for Montclair Prep, which won section titles in football in 1990 and ’92. No football teams in the San Fernando Valley area, it seems, want to play the Mounties, who have traveled as far north as Lake Isabella and as far south as La Jolla for games this season.

Kilpatrick is Montclair Prep’s only scheduled area opponent this season. And even that, perhaps, is a stretch--Kilpatrick is an L.A. County-funded school for juvenile offenders in Malibu.

After two football teams canceled on Montclair Prep earlier this season, the Mounties were forced to pick up games with Sherman Indian and California School for the Deaf--both of Riverside--just to complete an eight-game schedule, which is mandatory to qualify for playoffs. When they play at Sherman Indian tonight, it will be the Mounties’ first game since Oct. 7.

Has Montclair Prep suffered enough for its improprieties? Or should the Mounties be forever punished for something that had nothing to do with the current players on the team?

And although football is the reason for Montclair Prep’s problems, it is not the only sport that suffers.

The basketball team finished 15-6 last season but earned no playoff bid. Why? Because the Mounties were not affiliated with a league and no playoff bids were allotted for free-lance teams in Division IV-A, regardless of record. Of the 20 teams in the Division IV-A playoff bracket, five had losing records and three finished the regular season at .500.

Seem unfair? If anybody other than Montclair Prep students and coaches cares about the school’s fate, the list is short.

Montclair Prep was overlooked last year when a releaguing committee finalized the section’s 73 leagues. Teams are currently in the first year of a four-year releaguing cycle. For the Mounties to get into a league, they must be voted in by league affiliates. And that probably will not happen soon.

“We’ve talked to several leagues and there’s some interest out there, but not much,” said Crowley, the Southern Section commissioner. “I’ve promised to try to put them in a league. (But) I can’t mandate it.”

League representatives cite several reasons for rejecting Montclair Prep. The school cheated once, it will cheat again, some say. Others charge the Mounties with poor sportsmanship on the field--accusing them of taunting and starting fights.

Even leagues with an odd number of teams--a situation that creates scheduling headaches--reject them.

“I guess our feeling is that when coaches allow their players to get out of control, it sends a message--and it’s not a good one. It’s not what we want our kids to follow,” said Nordhoff Principal Susana Arce, representative for the Frontier League, which has only five schools competing in football and includes teams with enrollments similar to Montclair Prep.

The worst moment in Montclair Prep history centers on Derek Sparks, the former Mountie running back now at Washington State.

Montclair Prep was placed on three years’ probation and banned from the playoffs in all sports for the 1991-92 school year after charges of recruiting violations and grade tampering emerged at an eligibility hearing for Derek and his cousin Leland Sparks following their transfer to Mater Dei. The Sparkses also said they never paid tuition at Montclair Prep.

In addition, the section suspended John Hazelton, then an assistant at Montclair Prep, for one year for recruiting violations. Derek Sparks had transferred to Montclair Prep from Banning. The section later lifted Hazelton’s suspension, saying it had no jurisdiction over individuals, only athletic programs.

Since the scandal, Montclair Prep has worked to improve its image. Although progress has been slow--five players were suspended this season following a hazing incident--the Mounties say they are headed in the right direction.

“(The Southern Section) sent us a letter complimenting us just today, saying that we’ve really gotten our act together and complied with all the rules of the probation,” Vernon Simpson, principal and founder of Montclair Prep, said this week.

Said Crowley: “As far as being in good graces, Montclair Prep has done everything that they were asked to do in terms of their probation. They have been very, very cooperative. They want to play the game by the rules.”

Simpson said he thinks the progress will be much more swift now that Hazelton, Burbank’s head coach, has left Montclair Prep.

“We got rid of one coach that was kind of a loose cannon,” Simpson said. “He was the reason for a lot of the problems.”

Hazelton, however, disputes Simpson’s accusations.

“I don’t mind being the scapegoat for Montclair Prep if it helps Montclair Prep get back into a league, because I love the school, I love Doc Simpson,” Hazelton said. “(But) I can assure you that every single thing I did at Montclair Prep was with the knowledge of Dr. Simpson and (Coach) George Giannini.”

But no matter who is to blame, there still remains the fallout from the controversy. And it may take years for Montclair Prep to clean the slate.

“I would think that time would take care of that,” said Jim Bashore, the Tri-Valley League representative and athletic director at Carpinteria.

Said Crowley: “Time heals wounds and that’s important. They made a mistake and they’ve paid for that mistake.”

Apparently, the Mounties are still paying.