They’re Bearing Up While Everyone Else Bears Down : Butler, Hazely Withstand Taunts and Trauma but Insist They Made Right Move to Ocean View

When the Ocean View High School basketball team traveled to Long Beach Poly for a game on Jan. 8, the Seahawks were greeted by a banner that read: “Ocean View Wants You: Call Your Local Recruiter.”

During Ocean View’s Jan. 29 game at Edison, which was televised on a cable station, one Charger fan yelled to Seahawk forwards Ricky Butler and Desi Hazely: “I hope the game is on satellite so your parents can watch!”

Good basketball players learn to ignore the intimidation attempts of opposing fans, but some fans have gone above and beyond their call of duty to taunt Butler and Hazely, juniors who transferred to Ocean View from Lynwood before their freshman year in 1983.

When they go to the foul line, opposing fans usually chant, “Lyn-wood, Lyn-wood,” or make some reference to them being recruited to attend Ocean View three years ago, even though their transfer was ruled legal.

It’s difficult when they don’t block out these hecklers.

“I wasn’t into the (Long Beach Poly) game the minute I saw that sign,” said Hazely, who scored 10 points in the Seahawks’ 51-49 loss that night. “I wanted to go up there and tear it up.”

In addition to the hostile environment they’ve faced in the gym, Butler and Hazely have had to deal with the trauma of being the central figures, along with Seahawk Coach Jim Harris, in the sanctioning of the Ocean View program last year.

It was Butler and Hazely who were ruled ineligible by the school and the Huntington Beach Union High School District for the 1984-85 season, after which Ocean View Principal John Myers forfeited the Seahawks’ 24 victories and Sunset League championship and released Harris as coach.

It was the procedures Harris used to enroll Butler and Hazely at Ocean View in 1984 and to become their guardian that the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Executive Committee deemed in violation of Rule 510 (undue influence).

The committee voted to impose further sanctions, which made the Seahawks ineligible for this season’s 5-A playoffs.

Butler and Hazely have experienced a range of emotions this past year. They had the exhilaration of helping the Seahawks advance to the 5-A championship game last March and earning individual honors (Butler was named Sunset League most valuable player and was an All-CIF selection). But there was the disappointment of seeing Harris lose his job, Ocean View’s victories forfeited and the team’s runner-up trophy returned to the Southern Section.

For a time, Butler and Hazely blamed themselves for Harris being released, so they were elated when Myers reinstated Harris as coach.

Nevertheless, it has been an emotionally draining year.

“I just wish I was a normal high school kid who played basketball and didn’t have lawyers sitting in on interviews,” Butler said.

Despite all the problems they’ve had and the criticism they’ve received, especially for having three different guardians during their three years at Ocean View, Butler and Hazely say they have never regretted their decision to attend the school.

“The people, the academics and the (basketball) program made it worth staying here,” Hazely said. “I’ve liked all the guardians I’ve been with.”

During their freshman year, the students lived with landscape architect Laurant Brown and his son, Derek; during their sophomore year, with the Harris family; and they are currently living with Lee Jackson, a youth counselor and summer league basketball coach.

Both Butler and Hazely say their nomadic life style in Orange County still beats living in Lynwood, where they said they were pressured to join gangs and where they said they might not develop as well academically or athletically.

“In Lynwood, you hardly ever hear about a basketball player getting a scholarship,” Butler said. “So, I had to get out of there.”

Added Hazely: “A free education is important. Not too many people in my family went to college and I know I needed (an education) to make a decent living. It was one of my goals to get to college and to graduate.”

Butler and Hazely each had a rough freshman year academically, as both students’ grade-point averages hovered near the 1.0 mark. Their reading skills when they entered Ocean View were closer to fifth-grade level, they say.

But with the help of remedial courses at Ocean View, they say they have raised their reading skills to the appropriate high school levels. Their cumulative grade-point averages have improved to about the 2.4 mark, pending this semester’s grades.

But, as Harris said: “Too many people focus on what is negative, that they’ve had three guardians in three years, so something must be wrong. Why can’t there be something right about these parents wanting these kids to be at this school, where their friends are, where they’re happy, where they feel they have a better opportunities for the future?

“Why aren’t there people saying, ‘Good for you. Welcome to Orange County.’ Why do so many people think on the negative side?

“I had no idea how intense the negative side was. The perception is that basketball is the only reason they’re here. What a joke. Why would someone go through that much trouble, that much expense, for basketball.”

Joe Butler, Ricky’s father, says the sacrifice of letting his child leave home under the care of guardians has been well worth it.

“I’m still glad they went to Ocean View,” he said. “I wanted them to go there because of the academics. It’s a great thing to see a kid try to better himself.”

The presence of Butler and Hazely, both 6-feet 6-inches, have not benefited the other five teams in the Sunset League, though. With Butler, a Times All-County selection as a sophomore, and Hazely, a starting forward this year, the Seahawks have not lost a league game (on the court) in the past two seasons. Ocean View is 9-0 in league, 19-4 overall this season.

“Most people don’t realize the hostile feelings there are against them (Ocean View) by both the players and fans,” Edison Coach Jon Borchert said.

Especially the opposing fans.

“Everyone thinks we were recruited,” Hazely said. “Everywhere I go, they’re always asking me, ‘Were you really recruited? Did they buy you the car you’re driving?’ Those little things are irritating.”

Butler does not dwell on such remarks.

“I just laugh at it, it’s funny,” he said. “I try to ignore them.”

Hazely and Butler have learned to live with the criticism. They think that what they’re doing is right and good and that it will benefit them in the long run, despite that others have continually criticized them.

“It’s tragic,” said Jeff Harshaw, former Seahawk assistant who coached them on the sophomore team at Ocean View. “A lot of people look at those two kids as nothing more than commodities. They’re human beings.”

‘The people, the academics and the (basketball) program made it worth staying here. I’ve liked all the guardians I’ve been with.’

--Desi Hazely