FALLEN HERO

Before his arrest last year, Glenn Thompkins was a big man on the Rialto Eisenhower High campus, a former star athlete who had returned to his alma mater as a teacher and championship-winning football coach. Many considered him an exemplary role model.

But when the Eagles open their season tonight against highly regarded Corona Centennial, Thompkins won’t be on the sidelines, or even in the stands.

Faced with 14 counts related to charges that he had an unlawful sexual relationship with an underage female student, he has been banned by the school district from the Eisenhower campus and is prohibited from attending games.

Details of the case have not been made public because of the nature of the accusations and the age of the alleged victim.

What is clear is that while Thompkins, 27, awaits his day in court, there is confusion and angst among former players and supporters who find it difficult to associate the alleged crimes with a young man whose character had always seemed above reproach.

“To this day I will defend Glenn Thompkins, and I still think the world of him,” said Tom Hoak, Eisenhower’s athletic director and former football coach.

Ryan Russell, who played for Eisenhower when Thompkins was an assistant coach in 1998, flatly refuses to believe the allegations against his friend.

“I still talk to [Eisenhower] people, and I’ve never heard anything bad said about Glenn,” said Russell, an aspiring Arena League receiver who employs Thompkins as a personal trainer. “The people that know him just love him.”

Verna Carey views Thompkins’ predicament from a different perspective. The lead attorney for the San Bernardino County statutory rape prosecution unit said charges were filed for a simple reason: There is enough evidence to prove Thompkins’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Others, though, have their doubts.

Hoak is bothered because the case has dragged on for close to a year without a trial date. “A lot of damage has been done without due process,” he said.

Thompkins was arrested in November but charges were not filed until March while authorities investigated the claims and gathered evidence. A pre-preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court in Fontana, with a preliminary hearing set for Thursday. If found guilty on all counts, Thompkins could face up to 11 years and eight months in prison and be required to register as a sex offender, effectively ending what had looked like a promising career as an educator.

Court delays and the district attorney’s offer of a settlement -- rejected by Thompkins and since withdrawn -- have fueled speculation that prosecutors lack a strong case.

“If he did something wrong and they can prove it, then obviously he needs to pay,” Hoak said. “But if you don’t have a case, if you don’t have evidence, if you don’t have anything, then all you’ve done is ruin this man’s life.”

Thompkins’ fall from grace came just as he was making significant strides in his first season as head football coach.

Eisenhower had rebounded from an 0-5 start in nonleague play to sweep its Citrus Belt League opponents and defeat Anaheim Servite in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs, extending its winning streak to six games.

Four days later, on Nov. 26, Thompkins was arrested on campus and booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Rialto police had opened the case that morning after a complaint by the parents of the alleged victim. Thompkins was released after posting $10,000 bail.

Having their coach suddenly removed had a devastating effect on Eisenhower’s players, some of whom learned about Thompkins’ arrest from newspaper reports.

“It was a disaster for us,” said David Lord, a senior lineman. “We tried to put it behind us, but it was hard.”

Said senior running back Anthony Manning: “It was shocking. I didn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it.”

Hoak, the Eagles’ coach for 19 years until resigning after the 2001 season, was thrust back into his old job for the team’s quarterfinal playoff game. It came as no surprise when Long Beach Poly rolled to a 43-3 victory.

“I’ve coached for 30 years, so the coaching part was no problem,” Hoak said. “[But] it was very awkward and very difficult for everybody.”

Those feelings were rekindled four months later when charges were filed -- 10 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, three counts of sexual penetration by foreign object and one count of dissuading a witness, the alleged victim, from reporting a crime.

The alleged crimes occurred between June 1, 2002, when the female student was 16, and Nov. 26, 2002. Thompkins was ordered to have no contact with the student, who turned 18 in July.

Thompkins, who has pleaded not guilty, declined to comment about his case. His lawyer, David Goldstein, did not respond to requests for an interview.

With Thompkins on unpaid administrative leave, Eisenhower was forced to find a new football coach. Julius McChristian, an Eagle assistant who is Thompkins’ best friend and roommate, was promoted in May.

The two have known each other since they were 5 and grew up playing football in Rialto, a kinship that reached its pinnacle in 1993 when they were senior co-captains on Eisenhower’s 14-0 Division I championship team.

Hoak said it was a fulfillment of destiny that the boyhood pals succeeded him. Pointing to a team photo of the 1993 Eisenhower squad hanging in his office, Hoak identified the two players standing at each end of the row of coaches -- Thompkins and McChristian.

“They were such strong leaders,” Hoak said. “I could have started practice their senior years, the whole coaching staff could have gone home, and that team would have practiced on their own and had a good practice.”

McChristian said he would have gladly remained an assistant under Thompkins, but he didn’t hesitate to apply for the head job when it became open.

“It was not difficult at all,” he said. “Because I know that if [Thompkins] wanted someone to have this job, he would want me to have it.”

But, he conceded, “this is not the way I wanted to get it.”

Thompkins was hand picked by Hoak to take over the Eisenhower program, among the strongest in the Inland Empire, while Thompkins was attending UCLA on a football scholarship.

“We kind of made a deal that when he graduated and got his degree, he’d come back and join the staff,” Hoak said. “It all worked out perfectly until this incident came up.”

Hoak, 55, said Thompkins “became like a son” while playing quarterback for Eisenhower from 1991 to ’93. He was an exemplary leader, guiding the Eagles to a 56-3 rout of Santa Ana Mater Dei in the Division I title game and to the nation’s No. 2 ranking as a senior. He was chosen Division I player of the year and received The Times’ Glenn Davis Award, given to the top player in Southern California.

A 5 feet 9 and 170 pounds, Thompkins wasn’t big enough to play quarterback at a Division I college. But he was a good enough athlete to play defensive back at UCLA, though mostly as a reserve.

Ed Kezirian, UCLA’s assistant athletic director for academic services, said Thompkins was never a problem during his time in Westwood.

“He was a good student,” Kezirian said. “He always kept his grades up.”

After playing four seasons at UCLA, Thompkins returned to Eisenhower as an assistant coach in 1998. He soon built a reputation for going the extra mile for his players, making an effort to keep in touch with many of them after high school.

He learned the lessons of hard work from a supportive family -- his father, Tom, is a Vietnam veteran who works construction jobs and is known for helping others; his mother, Bernett, is former president of the Eisenhower booster club; and his brother, Demond, is a former standout receiver at Eisenhower and Nevada Las Vegas who inspired his younger sibling by pushing him to do his best.

Thompkins began teaching in the Rialto school district after earning a history degree from UCLA in 1999. His desire to remain an educator may have influenced his decision to reject a settlement offer from the district attorney in June.

Under terms of the offer, Thompkins would have received three years of felony probation and 180 days in county jail, but could not have his conviction reduced to a misdemeanor, even after successful completion of probation.

Carey, the deputy district attorney, was surprised by Thompkins’ rejection and promptly pulled the offer off the table.

“I have no idea what his thinking is or what his attorney’s thinking is,” Carey told reporters at the time. “Obviously he wants to stay in court, and that’s fine.”

In the meantime, life and football goes on at Eisenhower without Thompkins.

“We’ve tried to put it past us because right now there’s nothing anybody can do,” Hoak said. “As an athletic director, I have to look after the kids that we have here.

“We can’t cancel football, regardless of how we feel about Glenn.”