Crow Loses Coaching Job but Not His Ethics

There are coaches winning championships who keep testing the boundaries of acceptable ethical conduct. And there are coaches who follow the rules and work hard but don’t win enough to keep their jobs.

Closing that gap between the cheaters and those coaches who do their best with the local talent is the challenge facing high school sports today.

There seems to be a delusional take on what constitutes cheating. Is it doctoring a football? Is it allowing an assistant coach to give a promising eighth-grade basketball player a ride to a game? Is it a coach offering tips to a parent on how to obtain a transfer?

They are all ethical lapses that shouldn’t be tolerated, but the typical response is, “Hey, we’re not the only ones doing it,” as if that’s a legitimate excuse.

The latest competent coach to get his dismissal papers was 60-year-old Bill Crow, football coach at Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills for the last eight years and someone who has been coaching for 37 years.

A need for “new leadership” was the official administrative reason given for firing him one year away from retirement.

“There was no flash point,” said Principal Dr. Marv Abrams. “Coach Crow is a very highly regarded member of our staff. It’s not a matter of wins and losses. The feeling was systematic changes [were needed].”

The truth is too many good young football players were deciding to attend rival Mission Viejo, which hasn’t lost a game since the 2000 season.

“Time out,” Crow said. “I can’t stop kids from leaving. It’s unfortunate that’s what high school sports has come to, the parents shopping, the phone calls, and it’s not just football.

“Maybe it’s a blessing that I don’t have to put up with another year of this stuff. I was always one of those guys [who said], ‘Give me the athletes in my area and let me coach.’ It’s not a level playing field any longer.”

The old-timers, like Crow, are facing a problem: Either play the pander-to-the-kids game or turn over their clipboard to younger, more savvy coaches who will promise almost anything to build a championship team.

“I’m prejudiced because the parents I talk to want their kid to get a real good experience with life [through] football, but nowadays, too many parents think, ‘I’m in this winning program, I’m going to get a scholarship,’ ” Crow said.

“My dad was a coach and I was brought up that athletics is a way to learn life. Losing kids to the freshman program at Mission Viejo, how do I stop that? Kids are going to go to Los Alamitos. Kids are going to go to Loyola. Kids are going to go to places where they are winning. That was a real weak excuse for letting me go.”

It’s not as if Crow’s teams at Trabuco Hills were finishing in last place. His eight-year record was 40-43-1. His quarterback last season, Brian White, signed with Colorado. His 1998 team went 9-2-1 and lost in the Division I quarterfinals. But the rise of Mission Viejo into powerhouse status has raised expectations.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to be the best, but it’s how you reach the top that should count most, and Crow wasn’t about to throw away his values and beliefs to take a short cut to winning a championship. He won a Southern Section title in 1981 when he coached at Mission Viejo. He knows the thrill, the satisfaction, the sense of accomplishment.

“I was thinking about quitting this year, but so many kids came up to me and said, ‘Let’s go one more time,’ ” Crow said. “I can look in the mirror tomorrow and I did right after I was fired. I can go to sleep and say, ‘The kids and parents were having a good experience.’ ”

In a matter of weeks, Crow will be taking his first summer vacation from football since he was 12 years old. He’ll return in September to Trabuco Hills to teach physical education for one more year before heading off with his wife for retirement in Bend, Ore. He’ll be doing lots of reflecting on how times have changed.

“If someone said, ‘You’re cheating, you’re changing grades,’ I would have said, ‘Get me out of here,’ ” he said. “When high school gets to the point they’re worried about transferring here and there, people should get out of high school coaching. That’s where I’m at.”

Crow will leave with his pride and confidence intact. “I’ve had a great run,” he said. “Kids still come back and give me a hug, and that’s what it’s all about.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.