The official head coach for Crenshaw High’s football team remains Robert Garrett even though he’s been barred from attending games on Los Angeles Unified School District property since Aug. 21, when he was placed on administrative leave.
His long-time assistant and Crenshaw grad, Terrence Whitehead, took over as interim coach the week before the opening game. He and assistants trained by Garrett since they were adolescents have the Cougars at 10-1 and playing for the City Section Open Division title against top-seeded Carson at 6 p.m. Saturday at L.A. Southwest College.
“I think he’s doing an outstanding job from where he’s been put,” Garrett said.
Garrett said it’s no surprise what Crenshaw has accomplished with 14 of 18 players returning from a team last season that lost by a single point in the opening round of the Division I playoffs to No. 1-seeded Eagle Rock. Add standout linebacker De’Andre Kirkpatrick to that group along with others and you have Crenshaw seeking its seventh City title.
“My thoughts are you win ballgames from January through July when you meet daily and go over fundamentals, skills and get bigger, stronger and faster. You win it in the weight room,” Garrett said.
Garrett said he has spoken to Whitehead weekly and seen games that were streamed. But he has no intention of attending Saturday’s game.
Crenshaw coach Robert Garrett has been on administrative leave since August.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
“I’ll be sitting in front of a TV watching USC versus UCLA,” he said.
Garrett praised Kirkpatrick, a transfer from eight-man power Animo Robinson who he met last spring and summer.
“He’s by far a Division I player,” he said of the 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior. “You can’t coach size. He has good attitude. Doesn’t cuss, doesn’t fuss and doesn’t hang out. It doesn’t come from me or anyone coaching him. All we can do is motivate him and encourage him to do better.”
To say Garrett is fed up with LAUSD is an understatement. There has been no celebration of the greatest achievement by a football coach in City Section history. Crenshaw’s 10 wins give him 300 career victories since 1988, which puts him in Hall of Fame territory.
“I’m going to coach somewhere, somehow,” he said. “I was born to coach. I’m a helluva coach. Nobody gave me that and nobody can take it away.”
Garrett said he has never been told what is being investigated the last four months.
“I’m going to coach again. I’m going to get out of the house real soon because I’m an American citizen,” he said.
He continues to receive full pay while staying home and waiting to be cleared. Once LAUSD starts an investigation, it can last more than a year. Former Huntington Park basketball coach Joe Reed returned this year after 14 months on administrative leave after a parental complaint.
“I haven’t been told anything,” Garrett said. “All I’ve been told is we’re investigating. It doesn’t matter what happens because whatever they tell me what they are investigating, they will find no wrongdoing whatsoever.”
Garrett is writing a book. He said he was the first from his Jefferson High graduating class of 1977 to earn a college degree. His mother was one of 18 siblings and each one had six or more kids. He graduated from Nebraska’s Concordia University in 1981 with a focus on teaching and has a Lutheran teaching certificate. He could be a pastor if he wanted to.
“I’m not a coach, I’m an educator,” he said. “I’m the first in my family to get a college degree. You don’t know what I’ve been through and what I’ve seen.”
He offered words of wisdom for Thanksgiving: “Always do thy duty, which is best, leave unto the Lord the rest.”
You’ve heard the line, “Win one for the Gipper.” Now it’s, “Win one for The G Man.”