COACH PUTS HIS HEART INTO GAME.

Byline: JILL PAINTER MEDIA

Bill Resler arrived in Los Angeles wearing gray sweatpants, a ``Roughriders'' T-shirt and Birkenstocks. Interviews with Los Angeles media at an upscale hotel didn't warrant a wardrobe change.

Of course, Resler doesn't change anything just to please other people or fit the norm.

Resler is a charming oddball. He's a man of sound principle and dedication who has a bunch of wacky ideas. He has a different approach to life. It's not for everyone.

Resler is a tax law professor by day and a high school girls' basketball coach by night.

He was interesting enough material to director Ward Serrill, so much so that Serrill followed him for what was supposed to be one season. It turned into seven. He made it into a documentary, ``Heart of the Game,'' which was picked up by Miramax. Ludacris, whom Serrill admitted he didn't know before the film, narrates the film.

The film hits the big screen today in New York and Los Angeles. It's scheduled for a full release next month.

``I'm definitely out of my element,'' Resler said last week. ``There's nothing wrong with being out of your element. It's actually something I preach to the girls constantly. You try to get them out of their safe zone. This is a chance I get to be out of my safe zone. I have no idea what's going to happen from here to there.''

Resler should become a bit of a celebrity, although it's hard to imagine he'd ever act like one. At 49, he decided he wanted to coach basketball. Despite doubts that he could do it, he took a job as the coach at Roosevelt High in Seattle.

So what makes Resler so odd?

For one, his team abides by an animal theme every season, one of which was ``Wolf Pack.'' When most teams gather in a huddle and chant ``defense'' or ``hustle,'' Resler's team chanted ``draw blood.''

Resler took a lot of heat for that. Still does.

``I think passion matters,'' Resler said. ``Being of the moment, whatever it is you're doing, you should be doing it as hard as you can. The theme gives them a chance to focus on something other than the blah, blah, blah of listening to my voice. I experiment. The seniors are the ones that choose the animal. I just impose that they're going to choose an animal.''

There are many things Resler does to make others cringe that don't make the film. An opposing coach, who happens to be a friend, got a toupee over the summer. Ressler had his team wearing toupees in warmups as a joke. But it wasn't such a joke to some fans.

``My view is the basketball team is what we're about,'' Resler. ``There's been times parents say `You shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have done that.' ''

For next season, the team is deciding between jackals and tigers.

Resler still is coaching. He said he'll keep coaching as long as he's scared just before the season starts. One condition of his media tour is that it doesn't interfere with his coaching.

Most of the film surrounds the relationship between Resler and Darnellia Russell, a black player in a mostly white school. She was often troubled by academic problems and a temper. She dropped out of high school during her junior season because she got pregnant. She later battled to regain her eligibility and, as a fifth-year senior, led Roosevelt to the Class 4A state championship.

Russell is attending community college and hopes to transfer to a four-year school and play in the WNBA one day. She's also caring for her 3-year-old daughter, Trekayla Clemmons.

Russell was asked how her life had been changed by Resler and she buried her face in her hands and cried.

The film has an early scene of Resler in a University of Washington classroom. But we don't get to see much of that part of his life. The man teaches one of the most difficult aspects of law and loves it.

He graduated from the University of Washington Law School.

``Tax has a bad rep,'' Resler said. ``Tax is funny and interesting and difficult. And so anything I can run up against that's going to be hard for me that I'm going to have fun doing, I'm going to be attracted to that.''

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Photo:

Bill Resler, a tax law professor by day, exhorts his Roosevelt High girls' basketball team to a Washington state championship in 2004. The team's story is being told in ``Heart of the Game,'' a documentary film.

Photo courtesy of Miramax