Diocese carefully checked out Welch
Be assured that Santa Margarita and the Diocese of Orange looked deeply into all aspects of football coach Harry Welch's activities at Santa Margarita, and weighed the pluses and minuses, before deciding to reinstate him this week after truths and false accusations about Welch and the school's football program placed Welch on leave and inspired a Diocesan investigation.
Welch has not returned our phone calls since his reinstatement was announced Wednesday. He could be under advice by legal counsel or under orders from school administration to avoid public comment.
• Unknown is whether Welch retains the title of special assistant to the president. It's the same title that Mater Dei football coach Bruce Rollinson has at Mater Dei, from which Santa Margarita derived the idea of bestowing the special assistant to the president label to football coach Mike Jacot and later Jacot's successor Welch. Not stating this is the reason behind the title, but while a football coach cannot interface with prospective students, because of CIF rules regarding pre-enrollment contact, a special assistant to the president can interface with prospective students if that is in the job description.
• Bellevue of Washington football coach Butch Goncharoff confirmed to the Seattle Times that he has applied for the Orange Lutheran football coaching position made vacant when Jim Kunau was reassigned at the school after 19 years of coaching Lutheran football. Goncharoff coached Bellevue to nine state titles over the past 11 seasons and guided Bellevue to the victory that ended De La Salle of Concord's national-record 151-game winning streak. He told the Seattle Times he remains content at Bellevue. Goncharoff's teams run the wing-T offense, which might not be the best offense to run against Trinity League teams.
• Maybe it will take some time for it to sort out teams into their proper divisions, but so far the playoff points-profile system that moves CIF-Southern Section basketball teams into playoff divisions is not working. Division 4AA in girls and boys place together many of the section's smaller private schools that emphasize basketball excellence with the section's smaller public schools that do not. That the boys basketball team at Laguna Beach, one of the county's smaller public schools, won a league title but had to play first-round host to JSerra, a basketball-strong private school, is wrong and further fuels the argument that separating public and private schools into different playoff divisions is the only correct course of action.
• Troy's boys basketball team went 5-0 in the second half of the Freeway League season, and senior Taylor Maughan was a big reason for that. He averaged 27 points and nine rebounds a game during the run that enabled the Warriors to finish second in the Freeway League.
• Foothill soccer coach Barry Turner and Edison football coach Dave White were among 15 coaches statewide this week to be named CIF State Model Coaches of the Year. According to the CIF press release about the announcement, "a model coach demonstrates and teaches the six core ethical values: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and good citizenship (the 'Six Pillars of Character')."
• A highlight of every high school sports year, The National Football Foundation Orange County Chapter's Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet, is Feb. 27 at Anaheim Convention Center. Honored will be 69 players, who were named all-league while maintaining a minimum grade-point average of 3.5, representing 34 high schools. For information, contact Dick Whitney at 714-969-2759.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
