Coach Hit Her, College Player Says : Sports: The accused faced a similar allegation in ’89. Through an attorney he says he did not strike the woman, who has a broken nose.

Louie Nelson’s gritty passion and tenacity helped propel him from the streets of Compton to the limelight of the National Basketball Assn. to success as a junior college coach. But now, some friends and colleagues say, that same emotional fire may prove to be his undoing.

The 42-year-old women’s basketball coach at Harbor College--named National Community College Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year last season by College Sports magazine--is under investigation by police and school officials for allegedly striking one of his own players. His accuser: a 5-foot-3-inch soft-spoken guard whose family and Nelson are longtime friends.

La Trece Polk, 19, says Nelson--the godfather of her younger half-brother, according to the Polk family--punched her in the face last Monday, breaking her nose during a heated practice session.

Nelson, who was placed on administrative leave after the incident, denied the allegation through his lawyer.

“He’s a very intense coach. . . . He’s not a violent coach,” said attorney Richard Schwab. “He does deny any type of punching, pushing or anything of that nature.”

Harbor College President James Heinselman said that the school’s inquiry should be completed today, and that he will decide then whether to reinstate or discipline Nelson.

“If he continues (coaching), I’m not playing,” said Polk, who played a Friday game wearing a face guard.

As Polk tells it, the incident began when two other players on the team got into a fight at practice. Upset that Nelson did not step in and break it up, Polk sat on the bleachers and refused to take the floor again, she said. When Nelson called her a “baby,” Polk said, she told him he was the baby.

Polk alleges that Nelson then rushed toward her, striking her and knocking her to the ground.

It is the second accusation of violence levied against Nelson during his 13-year coaching career. In 1989, he led the Compton High School boys team to the semifinals of the state playoffs, but was accused that year of knocking one of his players unconscious during a locker room scuffle. Nelson, who denied that allegation as well, was suspended for 10 days, was reinstated and then resigned at the end of the season.

In the wake of the latest incident, longtime acquaintances said that while the 6-foot-3-inch Nelson is a picture of intensity during games, he is a gentle giant off the court.

“I just couldn’t imagine him punching a girl,” said Fred Kennedy, personnel administrator for the Compton Unified School District and a friend and former colleague of Nelson’s.

Nelson, however, has been known almost as much for furiously pacing the sidelines during games, occasionally berating referees, as for leading the Lady Seahawks to victory at the state championships last year--just four years after the women’s basketball program was reintroduced at Harbor and he literally had to teach team members what a jump ball was.

Nelson, who in addition to coaching teaches algebra in the Los Angeles Unified School District, first gained prominence as an athlete at Compton High, where he played on two state championship teams. He went on to be a star point guard at the University of Washington, earning All-American honors in his senior year, and was drafted in the first round by the NBA’s Washington Bullets.

During six years in the pro league in the 1970s, Nelson also played with the Kansas City Kings, San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Jazz .

Nelson began coaching in 1982 as an assistant with the men’s team at Cal State Los Angeles.

“Sometimes I do things without thinking,” he said in an interview with The Times shortly before the alleged 1989 altercation at Compton High. “There’s only two ways I can be, real nice or real mean. If we’re not winning, I’m mean.”

Nelson’s team this year is off to its best start ever, with a record of 17-4. Polk is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 20 points a game.

Her father, George, said he and Nelson have been close friends since they were teen-agers. He also said he spoke with Nelson, and the coach vehemently denied striking his daughter. But something happened at last Monday’s practice, George Polk said.

“My daughter’s running around here with black eyes and a broken nose. I’m very hurt by this,” he said.