Oaks Christian Coach Bill Redell: rooted in a winning tradition

The front page of The Times’ sports section on Nov. 20, 1963, carried a story about an athlete described as “one of the vanishing breed of football triple threats.”

Accompanying the article were photos of Bill Redell passing, kicking and running for Occidental College.

These days, Redell is still in football, and he’s still a triple threat.

As coach of Westlake Village Oaks Christian, he has used humor, communication skills and life experiences to achieve long-lasting success in both his personal and professional lives.

The 69-year-old grandfather of eight, who didn’t start coaching high school football until he was 41, enters Friday night’s Marmonte League showdown against Westlake with a record of 123-13-1 in 11 seasons at Oaks Christian, including a record run of six consecutive Southern Section division championships.

There had been much speculation that last season would be Redell’s final one as coach. Now he says this season will “probably” be his last. He’s changed his mind before.

What’s clear is that Redell’s 23 years of coaching at Encino Crespi, La Cañada St. Francis and Oaks Christian have produced championships, admiration and laughs.

As a player, Redell was good enough to play in the Canadian Football League and earn a place in the College Football Hall of Fame. He was Occidental College’s quarterback and also returned punts and kickoffs and handled the placekicking and punting. Before that, he was a triple threat at San Marino High, where he starred in football, basketball and baseball.

His father was a forest ranger and his mother a teacher. He grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Pasadena.

“I can remember walking home from school in the second grade and seeing these kids playing in a game with maybe 100 people, though it seemed like 10,000,” he said. “Guys had red jerseys on and gray football pants. There were song girls. I didn’t know what they were doing, but I asked my dad. He said they were playing football. Right then, when I was 7 years old, I knew what I wanted to do.”

Redell became the player he dreamed of being, then coached at Cal State Fullerton and got into the insurance business in the first few years after he retired as a player in 1969. Later, he worked as a fundraiser at Cal Lutheran and coached his three sons in youth football.

In 1982, he applied for the job at Crespi, where his oldest son, Randy, became the quarterback. But an offer to work in the new United States Football League for his friend, Dick Coury, coach of the Boston Breakers, was too good to turn down. He lasted two years before returning to Crespi in 1985 to take over a program that had been 0-9-1 the previous year.

In 1986, Crespi became the first and only San Fernando Valley team to win a Southern Section upper-division championship, led by sophomore running back Russell White.

Redell left Crespi after the 1988 season and returned to the insurance business. He came out of coaching retirement in 1993, taking over at St. Francis. Then, in 1999, he was hired to be the first football coach at Oaks Christian, a new school down the street from where he lived in Westlake Village.

Redell remembers 17 players showing up at a local park for the first practice and he and assistant coach Bob Richards looking at each other and asking, ‘What have we got ourselves into?’ ”

The Lions’ program grew quickly, attracting players from Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley. When Aaron Ware, the younger brother of former Los Angeles Loyola standout Matt Ware, enrolled as a freshman in 2001, it was the beginning of Oaks Christian’s success in attracting star power. Jimmy Clausen, Marc Tyler, Nick Montana and last season’s Gatorade national player of the year, Malcolm Jones, followed.

On this season’s team are quarterback Trevor Gretzky, son of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, and receiver Trey Smith, son of box-office king Will Smith.

In 2007, after Oaks Christian won the state Division III bowl game, a family friend who owns Regency Outdoor Advertising put up a photo of Redell posing with the championship trophy on billboards in Hollywood and Encino. Redell’s reaction: “I’ve had four GQ modeling assignments since that picture,” he quipped.

He has been married for 44 years and his three sons graduated from Air Force, UCLA and Stanford. He once worked for Ronald Reagan as an advance man on in his campaign for governor in the 1970s.

He uses life experiences every day in coaching. He learned from the insurance business the importance of hiring top assistants and delegating authority. From his playing days, he learned about fostering camaraderie. From his parental duties, he learned about patience, loyalty and discipline.

Then there’s Redell the quipper. At the Southern Section championship luncheon last December, Chris “Geeter” McGee, a Fox broadcaster, was telling the story of his days at Crespi, being best friends with Redell’s son, Ronnie, and having played football briefly. He said Redell never got his name correct, calling him “Mike” and “Skeeter.”

Redell shouted from his lunch table, “If you could play, I’d remember your name.”

When injured tight end Dillon van der Wahl told Redell, “Coach, I’m going to go do some therapy,” Redell replied, “Physical or mental?”

When Oaks Christian held a roast for Redell in May that raised more than $100,000 for a new synthetic turf field, he was introduced to an ovation by several hundred spectators. Amid the clapping, he hesitated before speaking into the microphone.

“I’m waiting for everyone to stand,” he said.

When asked how he wanted his funeral to be, Redell said, “It should be a heck of a party, but I’m just sorry I’m going to miss it.”

So goes the life and times of a man who has always found a way to make people feel good about themselves and others.

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