At a Crossroads : Bill Redell, the Well-Traveled and Successful Football Coach at Crespi High, May Elect to Hit the Road Again at the Conclusion of the Southern Section Playoffs

As Bill Redell watched his wife and 3 sons settle into their sleeping bags for another night in a borrowed, unfurnished condominium in Westlake Village, the former vice president of a national insurance company wondered about his decision to return to coaching.

It had taken just 4 years for Redell, the current Crespi High football coach, to rise through the ranks. He turned in his key to the executive washroom for a clipboard and whistle in 1980 and, after 2 years as an assistant at Cal Lutheran and a season as the coach at Crespi, Redell moved to the professional ranks as an assistant for the Breakers in the United States Football League.

But stability was in short supply in the USFL, which folded in 1986. After a season in Boston, the Breakers moved to New Orleans for a year and then to Portland before disbanding. The Breakers’ indecision about the first move, combined with a series of misadventures in the rental market, left the Redells temporarily nomads.

Before staying at the friend’s condo for 10 days, the family holed up in a Thousand Oaks hotel, with Redell posing as a blind man in order to ensure a night indoors for the family dog. “After that, and sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags for 10 days, I wondered what the hell I was doing,” Redell said.

Redell remained in coaching, working another season with the Breakers before returning for a second stint at Crespi. Now, 5 years later, he is reflecting on his career again. The Celts enter tonight’s Southern Section Division I playoff game against Long Beach Poly with a 5-5 record in what looms as perhaps the last stand for Redell at Crespi.

All-American running back Russell White enters the final stage of his high school career, as does quarterback Ron Redell, the third of Redell’s sons--along with Randy and Billy--to play for him at the all-boys parochial school in Encino. The timing seems right for Redell, 47, to make another move. He and his wife plan to discuss his future at the conclusion of the season, and if he decides to return full time to the insurance business, he will leave behind a career as rich in amusing stories and personal contacts as it has been in victories.

Redell, with a 42-15-1 record in 5 seasons at Crespi, not only brought the school its only Southern Section football championship--when the Celts won the 1986 Big Five Conference title--he also brought a big-time flavor to the football program. His staff has included Kermit Alexander, a former all-pro defensive back in the NFL; former USC running back Kennedy Pola; and Frank Bean, a former assistant coach in the USFL. And Redell himself had his own run at the big time.

Redell was a 5-time Southern Section selection at San Marino High in baseball and football and enrolled at USC on a football scholarship to play for the legendary John McKay. But Redell’s stay at Exposition Park was a short one, and the following story may indicate why.

“I was walking on campus not more than 100 yards from the Tommy Trojan statue when I saw McKay heading my way,” Redell said. “I got all excited and waited until I was near him and said, ‘Hi, coach.’ He never even looked up. I felt really low. I thought, ‘Geez, the way they recruited me I thought I was going to win the Heisman. Now they won’t even talk to me.’ ”

Redell transferred to Occidental College after a year to join his high school coach, Dick Schwank, who had been hired by the Eagle Rock school. Redell earned National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American honors and was drafted as a defensive back by the Rams in 1964. He was cut during the exhibition season, but played 6 years in the Canadian Football League. He earned all-pro honors as a defensive back, played on the Grey Cup champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1967 and learned important lessons in humility and media relations.

His wife, Cheryl, knew little about football, so Redell told her he was the Willie Mays of the CFL. But at the first game she attended, more than 20,000 fans rose in unison to boo her husband during pregame introductions.

“They had a promotion that night where they gave all the fans apples,” Redell said. “When I was introduced, they threw them all down on the field at me. I guess they didn’t think I was very good.”

Redell made a singular enemy of sportswriter Wayne Overland, who once questioned Redell about the health of his passing arm after he threw 3 interceptions in a game. Redell demonstrated the health of his arm by popping Overland with a right cross.

“The coaches convinced me that I should apologize to the guy, so I walked over to him and he had such a smug look on his face, I hit him again. He was on my butt in the papers for the next four years,” Redell said.

Redell retired at age 29, after the 1969 season, and returned to Southern California where he landed a job as an assistant to Dick Coury at Cal State Fullerton. Coury is the current quarterback coach for the Rams. Redell left Fullerton after a year and started a career in the insurance business, working his way up in 10 years to a six-figure salary. But he remained unfulfilled.

“I felt I had to be a good provider for my family, but I was always looking for a way to get back into coaching,” he said. “I felt I had sold myself out and it gnawed at me.”

Redell gave up his vice-presidency in the insurance business and built his schedule as a salesman around his job as an assistant at Cal Lutheran, a position he held for 2 years before applying for the Crespi job. He put together a reference list that nearly bowled over Athletic Director Paul Muff, who received calls on Redell’s behalf from Coury, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, former UCLA and Philadelphia Eagles Coach Dick Vermeil and Chicago Bears General Manager Bill Tobin.

None of that mattered, as it turned out. Redell won the job on the strength of his interview.

“What impressed me about Bill was that he could motivate the kids right away,” Muff said. “If I hadn’t interviewed him first, we might have taken all those phone calls as overkill. Like, ‘Who is this guy?’ But Bill is the kind of guy that, after you sit down with him for five minutes, you feel like you’ve known him all your life.”

Redell inherited a team that was 3-7 in 1981 and took it to an 8-3 mark a year later. Crespi made the playoffs that season, but Redell’s biggest accomplishment might have been the recruitment of Lance Fauria. Fauria was a 6-foot, 4-inch, 215-pound basketball player until Redell got a hold of him before his senior year.

“I came to watch a Crespi game the year before and he was a cheerleader,” Redell said. “First thing I did when I got the job was look him up and told him he was coming out for football. I told him he didn’t have a choice.”

Fauria, who works for the Seattle police department, started at tight end that year and earned a scholarship to Washington. Brothers Quinn and Chris will start for Crespi tonight.

Redell left after 1 season to begin his 2-year stay in the USFL. When Coury jumped from the Eagles in the NFL to the Breakers, he brought in Redell despite his limited coaching experience.

“I had no qualms because he’s an intelligent guy, good with the public and media and all the extra things you do as a coach,” Coury said. “He can handle that end as well as anybody. The general manager was my title and he did all the work for me.”

But 2 seasons with a league living a step from bankruptcy were enough for Redell, who left the Breakers and reapplied for the Crespi job after Chris Hyduke resigned in the wake of a winless ’84 season. But many in the Crespi community felt betrayed when Redell jumped to the USFL.

“A lot of people thought I was pretty crazy to hire someone who had quit on us,” Muff said. “A lot of people may think he suckered me, but I don’t pay attention to that. I thought he was the best guy for the job.”

The record supports Muff. Redell inherited an 0-9-1 team and led the Celts to a 6-4 mark in ’85 and to the Big Five title with a 13-1 mark a year later. Last year, the Celts were 10-2-1 and advanced to the conference semifinals.

Crespi opens the playoffs tonight as a long shot to match last year’s effort. But the disappointments this year have not dampened his interest in the job. If anything, he worries that he might be too intense for coaching.

During Crespi’s 28-0 win over St. Francis this month, Ron Redell threw an ill-advised pass that was nearly intercepted, and his father’s blood pressure soared.

“I got really angry and all of a sudden I felt my face swell up,” he said. “I damn near passed out. My kid completed 15 of 18 passes and I nearly killed him. I’ve really calmed down since my early days, but I still want to win. I’ve looked forward to every game this season and I’m excited about this game.”

Crespi supporters hope this isn’t his last season. And Muff hopes to lure Redell back.

“He’s not only been successful but everyone is enjoying football at Crespi,” Muff said. “He’s become a real father figure to all our kids.”

But with no sons left to send to the school, their father may figure to exit, too.