4 Decades Later, Vincent’s ‘Era’ Nears End

Bill Vincent has been involved with South Bay football for more than 40 years, but he won’t be around it much longer. The El Camino College assistant will retire after Matt, the youngest of his six sons, is done playing for the Warriors next year.

Matt is a freshman defensive end and the fifth of Vincent’s sons to play at the school. He’s the reason Vincent is back as El Camino’s defensive line coach this season. Vincent has a long history at El Camino that includes 14 years as an assistant in the 1960s and ‘70s and a six-year stint as coach in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

The 62-year-old actually coached at El Camino when Warrior Coach John Featherstone and defensive coordinators Walt Justice and Steve Schmitz played there. Now, after a seven-year absence from the football program, he works for his former players.

“I have no problem coaching under those guys,” Vincent said. “I’m not a power guy. I don’t care about being head man.”

Vincent has been a full-time health and physical education teacher at El Camino since 1962, so when defensive line coach Tony Uruburu left to become an assistant at USC, Vincent was offered the position.

He says he took it in order to work with Matt. The 18-year-old says Vincent has been very instrumental in all his brothers’ football careers.

“He’s brilliant in football,” Matt said. “Without him football would be a big question mark in our family. He’s not the punishing or yelling type. He talks to you like a teacher and people respect that. He believes it’s in your heart and your head.”

Vincent coached Matt at West Torrance High, where he served as an assistant from 1982 to 1989. He also coached Greg, his oldest son, and Bill, his third-oldest son, at El Camino and twins Steve and Scott at West Torrance. Michael, the second-oldest son, is the only one who didn’t play for El Camino after graduating from Bishop Montgomery.

Vincent first became associated with the Warrior football program in 1952, when he was a defensive lineman for El Camino. In 1957 he scouted high school games for Warrior Coach Norm Verry, which led to an assistant’s job at Aviation High two years later.

Vincent’s retirement will mark the end of a coaching career that has spanned more than four decades at the high school and community college levels.

“He’s an excellent coach and his knowledge of the game is so tremendous,” said West Torrance High Co-Coach John Black, who was a defensive lineman at El Camino under Vincent in 1968-69. Black also worked with Vincent at West Torrance.

“Kids love playing for him because he treats everyone like they’re something special,” Black said. “He has a special way of working with people. He’s just an excellent motivator who gets the most out of the least.”

Featherstone said he has wanted Vincent to be part of his staff since 1985, when he was named coach at El Camino.

“I look up to Bill as an excellent teacher and coach,” said Featherstone, a wide receiver for the Warriors in 1967 and 1968. “He’s an excellent constructor when it comes to fundamentals and mechanics.”

Featherstone believes Vincent has a special way of communicating with players. That, he says, is a great part of the veteran coach’s success.

“He just has a great relationship with the kids,” Featherstone said. “He really relates well and he knows how to get his players ready.”

Qualities like those prompted former Warrior Coach Ken Swearingen to recruit Vincent from Aviation in 1962. Swearingen served as El Camino coach from 1962 to 1976.

“I hired him because he was the best in the area,” said Swearingen, one of the winningest community college football coaches in the country. “He was a no-nonsense kind of guy. Our defensive lines were always very good when he was there. They were always very tough.”

In 1976, Swearingen went to Saddleback College and Vincent took over at El Camino. In six seasons he had a 21-14 record and three of his teams placed second in the Metro Conference.

“He always had good teams over there,” said Long Beach City College Coach Wil Shaw, who was an assistant at the time. “You could tell they were well-coached and they always played tough and aggressive football.”

In 1981, Vincent stepped down. He prefers not to discuss specifics and officials at El Camino say he resigned for personal reasons.

“Lets just say it was time for a change,” Vincent said, sitting in his small El Camino office. “I was going to be an interim coach. I’m not a head coach guy, never have been.”

But Vincent missed football and in 1982 he volunteered to help out at West Torrance so he could work with twins Steve and Scott. The two boys were originally enrolled at Bishop Montgomery, where Vincent’s three oldest sons had played football. But he said they were kicked out of practice because their hair was too long so he transferred them to West Torrance.

“I drove them to practice and told the coaches ‘I have some useful time on my hands and I’ll help anybody that you think can’t play,’ ” Vincent said. “You get more work out of people that get a chance to do what they normally wouldn’t.”

Vincent describes himself as a mediocre athlete who worked hard to succeed. He was a defensive lineman at Mt. Carmel, a private high school in Los Angeles that no longer exists, then at Loyola Marymount. When football was discontinued at Loyola in 1951, he transferred to El Camino for a season. He finished his playing career at San Diego State.

He said there is a huge difference between the athletes he played with and the ones he coaches.

“Players are so much bigger, faster and better now,” said Vincent, who lives in San Pedro with his wife, Ilein, and three of their sons.

He believes athletes will definitely get better, only he won’t be around to see them. Once Matt is finished at El Camino, Vincent probably won’t step on another football field.

“I’ll spend my spare time at home, harassing my wife,” he said jokingly. That’s something he hasn’t had the time or energy to do in more than 30 years.