Redell Talks to Westlake About Open Football Job

Just three weeks after announcing his retirement from coaching, Bill Redell, the former Crespi High football coach, may be back in business.

Redell has talked with Westlake High Athletic Director Bob Fisher about the Warriors’ vacancy and a decision could be reached as early as next week. Fisher made it clear that Redell is not the only candidate--former Crespi assistant Jim Benkert also is under consideration--but the Warriors apparently would welcome Redell with open arms.

“I think it would be outstanding for Westlake High,” Fisher said. “He’s an outstanding coach and a great motivator. He’s well-known in the community and would help our football program expand.”

Redell, a Westlake Village resident who works as an insurance salesman, would be hired as an off-campus coach who would not teach. His position would be similar to the one he held last season at Crespi, in which he ran the football program but had time to run his insurance business.

“We have to see whether he can afford to take time out from his insurance business and have time to run the whole program like he did at Crespi,” Fisher said. “It is almost certain we’ll have a walk-on coach and we can’t afford to shut any doors. We’re not looking at just one person.”

Redell, who declined comment on the Westlake job, coached five years in two stints at Crespi and compiled a 43-16-1 record. During his second term at Crespi, he inherited an 0-9-1 team in 1984 and won a Southern Section championship two years later. Redell coached for two seasons in the now-defunct United States Football League between stops at Crespi.

Benkert has been an assistant at Crespi since 1982 and applied at Westlake after the Celts hired fellow assistant Tim Lins last month as Redell’s replacement. Benkert said that he would not coach next season as an assistant--either for Lins at Crespi or Redell if he gets the Westlake job.

“I want to be a head coach,” Benkert said. “If I don’t get a head coaching job, I’ll go back to college and work on my master’s degree.”