REDELL GETS SMALL SCHOOL TO THINK BIG.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE LOCAL

There was really only one way it was going to work and one guy who could pull it off.

For the past seven years, Bill Redell has presided over the most talented football team and ran the most accomplished coaching staff in area history. And when the season ends Saturday, they'll all be leaving with a smile on their face.

That's not easy to do. But somehow, Redell has kept happy 11 future Division I (senior) players, a handful of top juniors, everybody else on the team and a coaching staff filled with former NFL stars and successful former high school coaches.

Because of Oaks Christian's extraordinary collection of talent, Redell's probably not going to get any votes for Coach of the Year.

But in all Redell's years of coaching, from the Russell White-led teams at Crespi of Encino in the 1980s to the John Sciarra-led teams at St.Francis of La Canada, to stints in the USFL, Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, you have to rank the seven years he has spent managing all the personalities, egos, hoopla and expectations at Oaks Christian as his best job.

Redell, 65, is coy about all that. The way he sees it, his job was to find good people and let them do their jobs.

``I run the football program like I'd run a business,'' he said.

``I've learned to delegate responsibility. You have to manage the whole program and keep the whole thing together. There are a lot of balls in the air, especially on a team that's this talented.''

In other words, if Redell hires you to coach the offensive line, he's going to let you do that job.

Just look at practice. Most days, defensive coordinator Clay Matthews, a 19-year NFL veteran takes a lead role. And if not Matthews, then it's offensive coordinator Mark Bates, himself a Southern Section title-winning coach at L.A. Baptist in 1993.

Volunteer assistant Wendell Tyler, a Pro Bowl running back with the San Francisco 49ers, delivers most of the pre-game speeches.

``It just shows you how seasoned he is,'' Tyler said. ``Most high school coaches usually want to rule over everything. But Bill really trusts the people he hires.''

A lot of high school coaches wouldn't hire guys like Tyler and Matthews on their staff. Like, `Yeah right, the NFL guys are going to be happy playing second-fiddle to a high school coach.''

But Redell never has been afraid of anyone else's shadow.

This is what it's like in college and the NFL. The head coach hires highly qualified assistants and lets them do the job they were hired for.

``He wanted it to be run like a top-notch college program where everyone had their responsibilities,'' said St. Francis head coach Jim Bonds, who got his start as a coach from Redell as the Golden Knights' offensive coordinator in 1993.

``At the end of the day, it's his product. If something wasn't the way he wanted it, he had no problem stepping in.''

Redell learned all this through his own experiences. He was the CIF Player of the Year at San Marino High in 1965, an All-American quarterback at Occidental College, drafted by the Rams after college and a seven-year pro in the Canadian Football League. In 2001, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

After his playing career was over, he coached at Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and with the Boston Breakers of the USFL. In 1985, he decided high school football would be the best level to settle into so he could stay in one place and raise a family. He took the job at Crespi and built the program into the No. 1 team in the country.

In 1988, he left Crespi to go into the private sector while his sons -- Ronny, Randy and Billy-- were in high school and college. He built a successful career in the insurance business, becoming the COO of Bolton Insurance.

On the way to work every morning, he drove past St. Francis and after four years away from the game, the coaching bug finally bit him again. He took the job at St.Francis and won a Southern Section title in 1993.

In 2000, he heard about a new school opening up in Westlake Village and applied to be the football coach.

``It came down to Bill and Clay Matthews,'' Oaks Christian athletic director Jan Hethcock said. ``In terms of football knowledge, nobody knows more than Clay. But he'd never been a head coach. ... I called him up and told him I was going to go with Bill. He said, ``I understand, I probably would've gone with Bill, too.'

``You make a lot of decisions in life. But this was one of those decisions that's gone absolutely perfectly.''

There's been a lot of talk that Redell will retire after this season. His answer to that question depends more on the day of the week that you ask him.

A lot of the decision will depend on the direction Oaks Christian wants to go. There are some who think the school should gracefully exit the national spotlight after this year and run a smaller-time football program.

If that's the case, there's no reason for Redell to come back. He's a big-time coach who only knows how to operate at the top level.

``I want to keep this football program at the highest level,'' he said. ``We've achieved that and we want to keep it there.''

It'd be a shame if Redell walks away because others don't want to keep it there. Yes, Oaks Christian has attracted a lot of negative attention. But that's just the price of greatness.

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