Hurley speaks about the controversy

Acorn Sports Writer


George Hurley has had a distinguished career as the head football coach at Newbury Park High School.After the 1998 season, Hurley was named the NFL’s High School Coach of the Year, and with top assistants Doug Dagan and Gary Fabricius at his side, Hurley and his Panthers won five Marmonte League championships and one California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) title during the 1990s.


The Panthers have struggled the past three seasons, finishing 3-7 and not making the CIF playoffs each year.


Hurley, in his 15th year as Panther head coach next fall, recently said he believed Westlake head coach Jim Benkert shouldn’t play transfer quarterback Rudy Carpenter, a senior, next fall regardless of whether or not Carpenter is deemed eligible by the CIF.


The transfer of quarterback Rudy Carpenter from Newbury Park to Westlake High School continues to be a hot topic. Recently, Carpenter and George Hurley, the Newbury Park head coach, spoke with The Acorn about it.


Hurley said Westlake head coach Jim Benkert did in fact try to convince Carpenter not to transfer because of the mess it could cause to transfer to a neighboring Conejo Valley school, but Hurley added, "He (Benkert) is ultimately responsible for who plays and who doesn’t play."


This isn’t the first time a high-profile player transferred from one Conejo Valley high school to another. Marcus Crawford, a running back, transferred from Thousand Oaks to Newbury Park as a junior and still holds the Panther record for yards in a season and a career. He graduated in 2001.


Benkert is in his 15th season at the helm at Westlake. He has led the Warriors to four Marmonte League championships and one CIF title, and has taken his team to the CIF playoffs 12 times. The Warriors lost in the championship game last year and finished 11-3.


Carpenter told The Acorn that Hurley took a hard stance when he found out that the quarterback was thinking of switching schools.


"I don’t want to bag on Coach Hurley at all," Carpenter said. "He was always cool to me when I was there (at Newbury Park). But when he did hear that I was going to transfer, he did say some things to me that were pretty ridiculous."


Carpenter said Hurley told him if he transferred within the Marmonte League, Hurley would do what he could to make sure Carpenter wasn’t eligible to play next fall.


"Basically, what he told me was, if I transfer within the league, that he will do whatever it takes that I never play (high school football) again. I was pretty surprised that someone would say that. I was only 16 at the time and I was going through a bunch of stuff."


Carpenter added, "I honestly do think that the coaches at Newbury Park, especially Coach Hurley, don’t want me to play. That’s their right, they can think whatever they want, but it’s not going to bother me at all."


Hurley didn’t deny that he met the prospect of Carpenter transferring with a hard line and noted that as many as a half-dozen players entertained the idea of transferring to Westlake after last season, but that, in the end, only two, Carpenter and Ryan Sorensen, made the move.


"I think one of the times we were sitting down and we had a little heart to heart talk, he (Carpenter) was talking about leaving and I was talking about how important it was to be loyal to your school," Hurley said. "I didn’t want him to think that we didn’t care if he left— ‘You go and do whatever you want to do because we don’t care’—I didn’t want him to think that it was just going to be automatic."


Hurley added, "It’s not something I was threatening him with, it was more just letting him know that there’s right ways to do things and there’s wrong ways to do things. I was concerned he was doing the wrong thing, and I wanted to make sure he stayed on the right track."


Hurley said that Carpenter and his father, Scott, are saying now that a reason for the transfer was Hurley’s attitude. Hurley said that’s a convenient —but untrue reason for the move.


"They’ve got all kinds of little things in their little ammunition bag, that they’ve been saving and using," Hurley said regarding Rudy and Scott Carpenter. "But I believe they had every intention of going long before I said something like that, and then I got it thrown back in my face."


Hurley said now the Carpenters are saying, "‘The only reason we left is because Coach Hurley said that,’ or ‘We weren’t going to leave until Coach Hurley had that attitude.’


"They like to use that for excuses," Hurley said. "I mean the son and dad. They like to point fingers at other people to show that it’s not their fault, it’s really somebody else’s fault; ‘If Coach Hurley hadn’t said that, we’d have stayed.’ It’s just a way of justifying the end."


Hurley said he heard rumors that several players were thinking of switching schools after last season. "There was a ring of people who all kind of decided—as kids will decide— ‘Hey, let’s all go over to Westlake and we’ll all play over there.’ There were four or five or six people, but those two (Carpenter and Sorensen) were the only two that pulled the trigger.


"There were other people who had discussed it and word got back to me," Hurley added. "I talked to the other kids and they said, ‘That was just talk. We kind of got caught up in the excitement of the playoffs.’"


Hurley said the players involved watched some of Westlake’s playoff games from the Warriors’ sidelines last fall.


"And the kids from Westlake kind of encouraged them—‘Hey, you ought to come over here next year,’ that kind of thing," he said.


Hurley said the situation has caused tension between he and Benkert, but he thinks it will subside.


"It’s a little bit more strained," Hurley said of the friendship with Benkert. "(But) we’re still professionals. You get over these kinds of things. But I think there is a little bit more tenseness between us."


Hurley said he’d prefer the whole episode just go away and that newspapers and media, although drawn to the story, should begin concentrating on the other players on the Newbury Park and Westlake rosters. The Panthers and Warriors will compete in passing league games over the summer.


"I’ve just approached it this way," Hurley said. "The situation is what it is. There’s nothing we can do to convince them that they’re wrong. They’re not going to convince me that I’m wrong or that the rules are wrong. It is what it is, and the people that are involved are who they are, and it’s time to just get over it."


The issue keeps coming up, though, said the Panther coach.


"Every time I go some place it’s, ‘How’s that quarterback of yours doing?’ Hurley said. "When I was at the Ventura County Hall of Fame dinner, two or three people came up and said, ‘That’s a shame this is happening,’ or ‘What’s going on with that guy (Carpenter).’ It’s something that won’t go away."


Hurley said he’s tired of it.


"I just want it to go away because I’m tired of dealing with it," Hurley said. "I know Jim Benkert is tired of dealing with it. The only people that aren’t tired of dealing with it are the Carpenters because they’re getting their picture in the paper all the time. That’s their goal in life, (to) get some attention."


He added, "I try to concentrate on the kids who want to play for me … let’s talk about some of the positive things that are happening. I would rather concentrate on those issues, but that doesn’t sell newspapers."


Told that Rudy Carpenter said it’s been tough as a 16-year-old (now 17) to go through this process, Hurley said, "He plays that card pretty good. It’s just amazing how everybody else is at fault and they’re (Rudy and Scott Carpenter) just victims."


Hurley added, "Nobody wants to talk about the 90 percent of the kids that don’t ever get in trouble. Everybody just wants to talk about somebody who got himself in trouble. Nobody’s talking about the rest of Westlake’s team or the rest of Newbury Park’s team."





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