Lobbying Begins for Job at Hart : Players Speak Out on Scott Successor

If Hart High football players get their way, it will take two men to replace Coach Rick Scott, who has resigned to become the football coach at Buena, a Channel League school in Ventura.

Hours after Scott told players Tuesday what they had presumed for two months--that he was leaving the Santa Clarita Valley school after four years as coach--players began lobbying for his successor. The players will make their pitch to Principal Laurence Strauss to replace Scott with two coaches: brothers Mike and Rick Herrington. Mike was Scott’s defensive coordinator and Rick has coached the Hart sophomores to a 40-0 record the past four seasons.

“We want Mike and Rick to be co-coaches,” junior safety Jamie Carroll said. “They know all the players and it’s running great the way it is. We don’t want a new coach to come into the system and change everything.”

Said junior tight end Brian Allen: “I think it’s unanimous among the players. We just don’t like breaking in a new coach.”

The Herringtons said they would accept the position as co-coaches, but Strauss indicated Tuesday it was too early to discuss replacements.

“We want to be quick but we don’t want to rush,” he said. “Our goal is to retain the quality of the program. We need to listen to our present football players and community, but we’re making a selection that will have far-reaching effects. We need to look at the immediate, but we also need to look at the future.”

Strauss said he would form a selection committee today and plans to fill the position in time for spring practice at the end of May. Scott, who declined to endorse a successor, said the position will not lack for candidates.

“I’m leaving a gold mine as far as talent and potential are concerned,” he said. “Hart is a great place to coach. There is good talent, good support from the community, a good coaching staff and people who care about the program.”

Scott, who started his coaching career in Ventura County, cited personal reasons and a desire to return to the area as motives for taking the Buena job. Scott, 39, played quarterback at Cal Lutheran and coached and taught at Newbury Park High for 10 years. He was an assistant at Newbury Park and Moorpark College before taking the Hart job.

“I know I’m never going to be the head coach of the Rams,” he said. “I’m just a high school football coach and that has to be kept in perspective. Ventura is where I vacation and now I have a chance to live in my vacation spot. I’m going to move to Ventura and get as close to the water as possible.”

Scott will teach social studies and physical education at Buena but wants to get involved with the football program during spring practice and in the summer. Instilling a winning attitude in a program that has not qualified a team for the Southern Section playoffs since 1973 is Scott’s top priority. Buena was 2-8 last season under Mike Olgy, who resigned in January.

“Losing is an illness and I’m going to come in with enthusiasm and try to get a winning attitude going,” he said. “I’ll spend time with their game films because I haven’t got a real grasp on why they haven’t been successful.”

Success came easily to Scott at Hart. He installed one of the most sophisticated passing attacks in the Southern Section and his teams were 41-9-2 overall and 20-0 in Foothill League play. That streak and the team’s Northwestern Conference championship two years ago rank as his top accomplishments, Scott said.

“I would have given up the championship to play five more games with those guys,” he said. “I wished we could have played for the state championship and the national championship. We would have played the University of Mars. I just wanted to keep playing with those guys. We got Super Bowl-type rings and I’m going to keep wearing that ring with pride.”

Scott may be remembered at Hart as much for his personality as his victories. He officiated high school basketball games and track meets and brought an earthy sense of humor to all tasks. When asked what lured him to Buena, he quipped, “Well, they offered me a little less than UCLA offered Jim Valvano.”

Said Allen, who played two years on the varsity: “His jokes sometimes were stupid but they were funny.”

Even Harry Welch, Scott’s No. 1 rival at Canyon, appreciated Scott’s humor.

“The thing that’s great about Rick is he has the ability to keep his wit, his perspective. I remember what he said after Hart tied Saugus a couple of years ago. He said it was like watching two lepers rotting,” he said.

Scott, whose Hart team opened each season against Canyon in the Valley-area’s best rivalry in the past four years, said he would not miss playing the Cowboys on opening night. But he hopes to meet Welch next season--in the playoffs. Buena and Canyon are Coastal Conference teams.

“Whoever replaces me at Hart is going to have a heck of a time starting against Canyon,” he said. “I hope I play Harry at the end of the season. That’s our goal over there for the first year, just to get in the playoffs.”

In the meantime, there is the matter of farewells at Hart.

“There is some apprehension and hesitation about leaving,” he said. “I had to leave people that I had a great relationship with. The potential for winning here is tremendous, and I think I’ve etched my name somewhere in the tradition of Hart.”