Workman Selected as OCC Football Coach : Head of Successful Edison Program to Take Over Struggling Pirates

Edison High School’s Bill Workman, one of the CIF Southern Section’s most successful football coaches for more than a decade, was named coach at Orange Coast College Friday, pending the approval of the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees.

The Board will meet Wednesday night and is expected to approve Workman as the successor to Dick Tucker, who resigned as in January after 24 years as the Pirates’ coach.

Workman, 44, had a 109-33-5 record in 12 years at Edison. His teams won Southern Section 5-A championships in 1979 and 1980 and shared it last fall with Long Beach Poly. The Chargers won seven Sunset League titles during Workman’s tenure and had a 32-game win streak from 1979 to 1981.

About 35 coaches applied for the Orange Coast job, a school official said. A seven-person screening committee narrowed the field to nine candidates and then to three: Workman, Cal State Long Beach defensive coordinator Ken Visser and Rancho Santiago College defensive coordinator Ben Rapp.

An executive committee of Orange Coast President Dr. Donald R. Bronsard, Dean of Instruction Lee Bradley, Dean of Health and Physical Education Susan Brown and men’s Athletic Director Tucker made the final decision.

Bronsard said Workman’s enthusiasm and success at Edison set him apart from Visser and Rapp, who are Orange Coast alumni.

“Bill exactly fits our need,” Bronsard said. “He has a high degree of enthusiasm, a high degree of integrity and a high sense of innovation. He has a good grasp of the role a football program plays at a community college.

“We’re delighted to have Bill. He’s really the answer to a prayer for us.”

For Workman, who began at Edison as an assistant in 1971, Friday was a day of mixed emotions.

“It hasn’t totally sunk in yet,” he said. “I feel kind of fragmented. I just told our team, and I want to cry about that. I’m leaving a place where I’ve been for 15 years, a place where everything is organized.

“But Orange Coast is a beautiful place, and it’s really exciting for me to get a chance to start all over again without having to move and pull my kids out of school to do it.”

Workman faces a rebuilding job at Orange Coast, which won national community college championships in 1963 and 1975 but hasn’t had a winning year since 1978, the last time the Pirates won more than four games.

Orange Coast was 2-8 in 1979 and 1980, 3-7 in 1981, 0-10 in 1982, 4-5-1 in 1983, 4-6 in 1984 and 2-7-1 last season.

Part of the reason for the Pirates’ decline has been declining high school enrollment in the Coast Community College District. Enrollment at nearby high schools such as Costa Mesa, Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor and Estancia has dropped by as much as 50% in the last decade. In 1975, when Orange Coast won the national title with an 11-0 record, the Pirates had more than 100 players on their roster. Last year, the number was 54.

Workman plans on making the Pirates winners again.

“In community colleges, you can turn things around faster than you can in high school, and we intend to do that,” Workman said. “I like to win. It makes things a lot more fun.

“I want to convince kids that Orange Coast is the best place to be. I want to bring the same kind of excitement that we’ve had at Edison.”

Workman attended Bell High School, East Los Angeles College and Whittier College. He only weighed 138 pounds after graduating from high school, but bulked up to 175 and became a starting defensive back on two nationally ranked NAIA teams at Whittier.

At Edison, Workman coached such outstanding players as Kerwin Bell, Frank Seurer, Mike Dotterer, Steve Davis, Rick Bashore, Duaine Jackson, Rick DiBernardo and Dave Geroux.

Bill Workman’s Record at Edison

Year W L T 1973 7 2 0 1974 7 2 1 1975 7 3 0 1976 7 3 0 1977 5 5 0 1978 9 2 0 1979 12 2 0 1980 14 0 0 1981 10 1 0 1982 8 4 1 1983 4 4 2 1984 8 3 0 1985 11 2 1 Totals 109 33 5