FORD GONE, NOT SOON FORGOTTEN.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE

If early reaction to the recent death of longtime Hart High of Newhall golf coach Dennis Ford is any indication, there might not be enough seats for his Dec. 22 memorial service at the Hart auditorium.

Past players, parents of those players, college coaches of his graduated players and Ford's rival coaches have expressed a continuing sentiment upon hearing of his death last week at age 62, following a long bout with cancer and a too-short chance at retirement:

They admired him, they'll miss him, and they are not likely to forget him.

And it won't be just members of the area golf community who remember Ford. He also coached football, baseball, softball and girls' basketball before taking over a Hart boys' golf program he directed to a 394-0 Foothill League record during the 1990s, in the final decade of his 30-year stay at the school.

``He touched a lot of people in this community,'' Valencia golf coach Rusty Swisher said.

``What a coach, what a good man. The kids really respected him,'' said Jim Wyman, father of 1999 Foothill League champion and current Coast Guard member Ryan Wyman, whose 56 at par-61 Vista Valencia was one of the best home-course rounds of the Ford era.

``He was a family-oriented person and really strong on all the kinds of values that some people think seem to be lacking in our society,'' said Dick Sebeck, Ford's Nordhoff of Ojai coaching rival and his partner as a Southern Section golf official. ``But he was really solid in those things. He was obviously proud of his golf teams, and he had great teams, but more than that he was a role model for his kids - whether you were the 10th man on the team or the best player on the team.''

Ford had plenty of best-player candidates during his 13-year stay as Hart golf coach, a span during which the Indians produced such Santa Clarita Valley high school standouts as eventual PGA Tour player Jason Gore, eventual U.S. Open finalist Jason Semelsberger, eventual L.A. City champion Shane O'Brien, eventual Western State Conference champion Carlos Robledo and eventual U.S. Public Links finalist Charlie Smith. Mike Miller, Donnie Hinson, Edick and Wyman were some of the others on a long list of top Ford-produced players - almost all of whom exited the program with superior short-game skills, courtesy of their intensely competitive and organized coach.

Blessed with an excellent short game of his own, Ford stressed chipping and putting throughout his career as Hart golf coach, routinely subjecting his players to one drill in which - before they could leave practice - they had to get up and down on nine consecutive chips to the putting green.

``And I get to pick the holes,'' Ford liked to say.

``He told me the kids hated it,'' said Westlake coach Dave Costley, who was Ford's closest area rival in cranking out league championships. ``I told him they'll be much better golfers for it, and he said, 'That's the whole point.' ''

``He was the consummate coach, just a winner,'' said Swisher, who recalls getting the Valencia program started during the mid-90s and just hoping to soak up some of Ford's winning ways. ``Every year, my whole goal was just to narrow the stroke gap.''

``This is not something I wanted to hear,'' said Brian Edick, Ford's final league champion, who also nearly gave his coach his first CIF/SCGA champion in Ford's final season in 2001. ``But I guess he accomplished everything he wanted to.''

Ford sure gave it his best effort, one which produced - apart from Hart's undefeated decade - his five men's club championships at Vista Valencia, where he served as president and played to a low single-digit handicap, and where he recorded most of his more than 30 holes-in-one, the last coming with granddaughter Kendall as caddie.

To many in the softball community, Ford's primary contribution came in that sport - as a pitching coach to players from his daughter, Samantha, who had 18 no-hitters and 26 one-hitters from 1982-85 at Hart, to members of last season's Western State Conference championship College of the Canyons team.

The story Ford liked to tell was how Samantha came to him at age 12, said she wanted to become a pitcher, and that he went out and bought a book on pitching, keeping a few pages ahead of his daughter's progress while catching her as he sat on a backyard milk box.

``That's not exactly right,'' she said. ``One day our pitcher got hurt, and he told me: 'You're the pitcher.' ''

Both Fords excelled at the endeavor, Samantha going on to help pitch UCLA to two NCAA championships, Ford going on to write his own book on pitching and help coach pitching at Cal State Northridge during the Matadors' run of NCAA Division II titles in the 1980s.

But golf became his passion, and it made an impact that lasted even after his players departed Hart. ``He worked with his players all the way around - in golf and on the mental side, and nine times out of 10 the kids respected the game and respected the coach,'' said Gary Peterson, ``and I attribute that 100 percent to Dennis. He's going to be missed.''

But hardly forgotten, thanks to the establishment of the Dennis Ford Memorial Golf Scholarship at Hart. The Ford family has said that, in lieu of flowers, scholarship donations can be sent to Hart High, 24825 Newhall Ave., Newhall 91321. For more information on that or the 7 p.m. memorial, phone Samantha Ford Dusenberry at [phone].

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DENNIS FORD