Stand-Up Coach

There are many different portraits of Bill Redell--father, husband, coach, grandfather, former Canadian Football League quarterback, insurance executive, motivational speaker, practical joker. . . .

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There was the time Redell’s sons, Randy, Billy and Ronnie, were teenagers at Crespi High and bringing home dates to introduce to their father.

“The few girls we did convince to go out with us, he’d call them by different names intentionally to confuse them into thinking there were other girls,” Billy said. “At an all-boys school, it was tough enough getting dates, then he’d sabotage us. We kind of warned our dates, ‘Don’t pay any attention to my dad.’ ”

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There is much to admire about the 58-year-old Redell, who is preparing St. Francis High (8-0) to take on Notre Dame (7-10 on Friday night in Sherman Oaks for the Mission League football championship.

His sons graduated from Air Force, UCLA and Stanford.

Randy, 32, a former Crespi quarterback, is an F-16 fighter pilot.

Billy, 31, a former Crespi lineman, is an attorney who helps run the Solvang Bakery.

Ronnie, 28, a former Stanford defensive back, is an investment banker. Each is married with two children.

“He’s a great father and a great role model for youths around the San Fernando Valley,” Ronnie said.

The daughter-in-laws still call him Mr. Redell and the boys continue to have a midnight curfew when they stay at the family home in Westlake Village.

“People have said he reminds them of General Patton, so whenever he hears that it pumps up his ego,” Randy said.

Added Ronnie: “He kind of liked being known as a tough father, but he was really a softy.”

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Redell once scared his wife, Cheryl, by putting a fake spider in the doorway. A few days later, Redell went to bed, rested his head on the pillow and started hearing the sound of a barking dog. He got up, and the sound stopped. He went back to bed and the barking started again. He got up and looked outside the window for a dog.

“You know what, that dog knows I’m coming out looking for him,” he told his wife. Cheryl couldn’t stop laughing.

“She put a barking dog bone under my pillow,” Redell said.

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Redell and Cheryl have been married 33 years.

Redell was a star quarterback at San Marino High, played at Occidental College and in the CFL. He was an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton in 1970, then abruptly quit after becoming disenchanted with the student protest movement during the Vietnam War.

A year later, three Fullerton assistants were killed in a plane crash. Redell believes he would have been on the plane had he not left the program.

He went into the insurance business, stayed home to help Cheryl raise three boys, then volunteered to coach at Cal Lutheran in 1980. He became head coach at Crespi in 1982 but left a year later to become an assistant under Dick Coury in the United States Football League.

He returned to Crespi in 1985 and inherited a team that had gone 0-9-1. A year later, Crespi won the Big Five Conference championship, the only time a Valley team has won the title in the Southern Section’s highest division.

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One of Redell’s favorite routines is finding a coin on the ground, then telling anyone close by, “Look what I found.” A St. Francis assistant coach decided to drill a hole into a quarter, tie it to a fish line and place it on the football field. Sure enough, Redell spotted the coin and was about to pick it up when the coin suddenly moved. Redell jumped in shock as his assistants laughed hysterically.

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There are more than a dozen former Redell assistants who have become head coaches. No one is better at selecting high-caliber assistants and training them to eventually take over their own programs.

Jim Benkert of Westlake, Tim Lins of Moorpark and Jim Bonds of Alemany are former Redell assistants considered among the best young coaches in the region.

While coaching at St. Francis since 1993, Redell remarkably has continued to serve as chief operating officer for the Pasadena-based Bolton and Co., the 75th-largest privately owned property and casualty company in the nation. He oversees 110 employees.

He refuses to give up coaching football.

“I love the game,” he said. “I love everything about it. You can develop meaningful relationships and have an impact on kids’ lives.

“The only thing I regret in coaching is I wish I could take back some of the things I said to kids in the heat of a moment.”

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Bonds used to be Redell’s offensive coordinator at St. Francis. He thrived on calling pass plays and wasn’t thrilled when Redell ordered him to run his favorite trick play, the fumblerooski.

“At one point, I thought we were going to base the offense around the fumblerooski,” Bonds said. “He’d get that Redell look and go, ‘Bondser, fumblerooski.’ I’d turn around and it would make 50 yards, and I’d be frustrated because it worked every time.”

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St. Francis players have a bet with their coach. If they ever catch him using profanity, he has to buy them a hamburger.

“So far, we’ve caught him three times, so he owes us three hamburgers,” receiver Mark Garcia said.

Asked what he has learned from Redell, Garcia said, “A lot about discipline and to never give up.”

Redell jokes to other coaches, “You know, I’m not known as an offensive genius or a defensive genius. I’m known as the guy who came up with the stupid fumblerooski. It’s a heck of a thing to be known for.”

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One day, the dog of Chuck Arrobio, a St. Francis assistant, decided to relieve itself on the football field. Redell told Arrobio to clean up the mess, but he never did, so Redell scooped up the poop, put it in a shoe box and hid it underneath the seat of Arrobio’s car. For a week, Arrobio didn’t know what was causing a terrible odor. “He thought it was the air conditioning,” Redell said.

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Redell said having fun is important in coaching, so there is a place and a time for practical jokes.

“I get as much as I dish out, maybe more,” he said.

Randy offers a warning to unsuspecting targets.

“If you have to visit him and he has access to your vehicle, desk, coat, bed or you have left your doors open for an extended period of time [more than 10 minutes], do a thorough check,” he advised. “He has been known to put strange objects in unexpected places. Furthermore, if you find nothing but see him in your rear-view mirror trailing your car or lurking around the corner, beware. He has done something and is tailing you to see your reaction when you find whatever he has left.”

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After a long St. Francis practice, Bonds went to use a portable restroom. “The next thing I know, there’s 45 players running over to the Andy Gump,” he said. “Redell sent them over to shake me up.”

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Redell’s greatest practical joke could be the one he played on a sportswriter. Two summers ago, he convinced yours truly to fly in an F-16 with his son Randy at the controls.

There was the takeoff, when the F-16, powered by 30,000 pounds of thrust and the nose pointed straight up, zoomed from sea level to 18,000 feet in 47 seconds. There was the nine-G’s turn--nine times the force of gravity--making your body numb and your face contorted.

The words “Damn Redell” revibrated through my stomach.

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The late Ray Malavasi was a teammate of Redell’s on the Hamilton Tiger Cats. On road trips, Redell would sneak into Malavasi’s hotel room and put itching powder on his bed sheet. Malavasi couldn’t figure out why he was always scratching his body. “He thought he was having an allergic reaction to soap,” Redell said.

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Why does he continue playing practical jokes, and accepting being the butt of them?

“I think he effectively uses jokes, pranks and humor as another tool to get more out of those with whom he works,” Randy said. “In the end, I think he gets the best out of his teams because he expects a lot of his players.”

When asked how long he’ll keep coaching, Redell said, “I think I’m going to do this until I die.”

His sons hope he never stops.

“I don’t think he’ll ever retire and we don’t want him to because he’ll come back and pick on us,” Billy said.

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Billy placed a dead snake under the brake pedal of his father’s car and followed him for a few blocks. Suddenly, the car came to a screeching halt, the driver’s door flew open and out came Coach Redell sprinting like a tailback, bad knee and all.

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com