Redell Leaves Little Kids for Little Money

Bill Redell was looking for a way out. Teaching physical education classes at Crespi High for the past two years, in addition to coaching the football team, had become wearying.

“I’m 45,” he said Wednesday. “I’m tired of throwing a little ball out to little kids.”

He can rest his arm.

Redell, who coached Crespi to the Big Five Conference championship in football last month, has been hired as Cal Lutheran’s director of athletic development, school officials announced Wednesday.

Even though his new position at CLU is full time, Redell said he will remain at Crespi as football coach.

His main duties at CLU will include raising money for athletic scholarships and facilities, coordinating season ticket sales for football and basketball, and organizing a school athletic association.

“I’ll be able to continue my coaching at Crespi,” Redell said, “and use my talents as far as fund-raising at Cal Lutheran. In the past, each coach here has had responsibilities for raising funds. It hasn’t been in concert. This will bring all the athletic fund-raising together under one roof.”

Before working at Cal Lutheran as an assistant football coach in 1980, Redell was vice president of a major insurance company. He also headed Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial campaign in Santa Barbara and Bakersfield in 1968.

While Doering would not disclose Redell’s salary, he said it wasn’t lucrative. “He’s got to love the Lord to come here for the salary we’re paying him,” Doering said. “It’s about 75% less than what he was making in private business.”

Redell was a CLU assistant for two years before moving to Crespi in 1982. He left Crespi to be a quarterbacks coach for the USFL’s Portland Breakers, then returned to the school for the 1985 season.

Redell said he had talked “for a long time” with CLU Athletic Director Bob Doering about the possibility of becoming director of athletic development.

He said he would not coach at Cal Lutheran in his current capacity but added he would be interested in the position if Bob Shoup, CLU’s football coach for 25 years, retired.

“If that happened, I would certainly ask to be a candidate,” he said. “But, I did not take this job to become a coach here. At this point, there’s been no commitment of any kind. I think Bob expects to coach for a long time.”

Doering wanted Redell for his new position because, he said, “He has national contacts. He moves in big-time circles. Athletics and marketing have been his life and he’s been very successful.”

One of his responsibilities will be to find capital for a proposed 2,000-seat basketball arena.

Said Redell: “For CLU to be competitive in Division II sports, we have to concentrate on raising more money.”