Eight Years Enough for Garrison to Wait

Jason Garrison was never in a hurry to become a head coach.

All in good time, he believed.

So, he waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. And voila!

Garrison, an assistant to three coaches in eight years at North Hollywood High, is in his first preseason as the Huskies’ head coach. And loving every minute of it.

“I always knew when the time came it was going to be worth my time,” he said. “There was never a sense of urgency to become a head coach.”

When a coach starts a career as early as Garrison did, there’s plenty of time for development.

Garrison, 26, who played wide receiver at North Hollywood for Coach Fred Grimes in 1988, became a Husky assistant weeks after graduating high school.

Grimes, who left North Hollywood to become an assistant at Chaminade in 1991, was everything Garrison looked for in a mentor.

“Everything about football I learned from Fred Grimes,” Garrison said. “He’s the greatest influence in my life.”

After an 0-10 season in 1991 under Coach James Lippitt, Garrison did a five-year stint as an assistant to Gary Gray, who taught him the importance of job administration.

Gray took the Huskies to the playoffs in four of his five seasons and credits Garrison for much of North Hollywood’s turnaround. Gray and Grimes gave Garrison plenty of freedom to run practices.

“I’ve just had two very good coaches,” he said. “They didn’t lift me up but [they] gave me a map to show me how to stand up.”

Garrison is not one to sit around and waste time. During his assistant years, Garrison earned a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential at Cal State Northridge, got married, had two daughters and purchased a home.

“Everything has been perfect,” he said. “Being a high school teacher and football coach. . . . I can’t ask for anything else.”

Despite his new title, Garrison isn’t afraid to confer with Grimes--an assistant at Kennedy--at least a couple of times a month. Often when a situation arises and Garrison is unsure of how to handle it, Grimes provides keen insight.

“I don’t think he knows how much I appreciate him,” Garrison said.

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Football coaches keep rolling off the Redell assembly line.

Jim Bonds, starting his first season at Alemany High, is the 11th coach to head his own program after serving as an assistant under St. Francis Coach Bill Redell.

“I’m very happy for him,” Redell said of Bonds. “I take a lot of pride that a lot of the guys who coached with me are head coaches.”

Other Redell proteges who became head coaches are Tim Lins of Crespi, Jim Benkert of Westlake, Fio Frosto of Pasadena Blair, Ron Gueringer of Corona Centennial, Steve Coury of Lake Oswego (Oregon), Frank Bean of Garden City Junior College (Kansas), former St. Genevieve Coach Richard Fong, former Redondo Coach Chris Hyduke and college assistants Doug Semones of Hawaii and Steve Hagen of San Jose State. Semones was a successful high school coach in Hawaii and Hagen was coach at a small college.

“I watch them all,” said Redell, a former Crespi coach who has coached at St. Francis since 1993. “They all mean a lot to me. They were very significant in any success I’ve had.”

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The Valley isn’t that close to the beach. Or is it?

Four high school volleyball players from the area are playing in this weekend’s Youth Beach National Tournament in Orlando, Fla.

Brooke Rundle of Westlake High and Brooke Niles of Calabasas won an 18-and-under regional earlier this month at Huntington Beach and, as a result, won an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando.

Ditto for Cam Dickson and Bryan Reinstein of Royal High, who won the 16-and-under regional and, like Rundle and Niles, also receive free hotel accommodations, air fare and a ticket to Disney World.

Dickson and Reinstein, who will be juniors at Royal, were the bigger surprise.

“Me and my partner haven’t played much beach,” Dickson said. “We just went down there [to Huntington Beach] to have some fun.”

They succeeded at that.

When it was over, Dickson and Reinstein were the winner of the 10-team regional and were awarded a medal by beach volleyball legend Karch Kiraly.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Dickson said. “I was speechless.”

On the other hand, life was a beach this summer for Niles and Rundle.

“We went three times a week,” said Niles, who will be a junior. “We really wanted to win [the regional]. We want to win this weekend too.”

The winner of the tournament, which begins Saturday and ends Sunday, receives professional gear and a potential spot on the national beach volleyball team.

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Staff writer Rob Fernas and correspondent Mike Bresnahan contributed to this notebook.