Redell Nixes Coaching Offer to Hazelton

Crespi High football Coach Bill Redell has rescinded an offer to hire former Banning Coach John Hazelton as an unpaid assistant, Redell said Wednesday.

Hazelton, who was fired in January after posting a 6-4 record in one season at Banning, was quoted at length in Saturday’s editions of the South Bay Daily Breeze regarding the position at Crespi.

Redell said that while he indeed had offered Hazelton the position, it had not been cleared through Crespi Athletic Director Paul Muff, and the release of the information was premature.

“John’s a good guy and I think he’s a good coach,” Redell said. “I had offered him a position as an unpaid assistant, which he accepted. Then, on Saturday morning it was in the Daily Breeze. I just don’t approve or go along with announcing it in the press without going through me.”

According to Banning administrators, Hazelton was dismissed because he did not possess a teaching credential. The Pilots were upset by Cleveland, 17-14, in the first round of the City Section 4-A playoffs.

“I can see his point of view without any doubt,” Redell said. “But I run a program where you don’t go to the press unless you go through me first. That may sound like a dictator, but that’s not it. Especially when I hadn’t even had a chance to run it past my athletic director.”

Hazelton has also coached previously coached at Montclair Prep and as a walk-on assistant at USC.