New High School Lures Redell From St. Francis

Bill Redell, who guided the La Canada St. Francis football team to an 11-2 record and the Division III semifinals this season, resigned to become coach at Oaks Christian High in Westlake Village.

Oaks Christian, a private coed school under construction, is scheduled to open in the fall. The school is being built with a $30-million stock gift from the Price Family Foundation and will have some of the best athletic facilities in the Southland.

Tuition at Oaks Christian will be $11,000. The school will begin accepting applications in January and expects to have close to 200 ninth- and 10th-graders its first year.

“I’ve heard people say [Oaks Christian] is going to be the Mater Dei of the San Fernando Valley,” said Redell, who coached Encino Crespi to the 1986 Division I title. “That’s not the objective. The objective is to have a very fine athletic program, very fine academic program and very fine spiritual program.”

In other football coaching moves, Dave Newell of Bell Gardens resigned late last month after leading the Lancers to 11 league titles and three section championship game appearances in 23 seasons.

Bell Gardens won the Almont League title this season and finished 5-5-1 after losing to Pomona Garey in the first round of the Division VII playoffs.

Newell did not rule out the possibility of returning to coaching as an assistant after taking a year off.

Neither St. Francis nor Bell Gardens have named new coaches.

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Soccer season has begun and two Southland players already have received national recognition.

Midfielders Robert Busick of Atascadero and Seth Eaton of Loyola were among 56 players named All-Americans by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America.