Vanguards’ Bill Reynolds Has Winning Number With His Daily Double

Every weekday at 3:15 p.m. Bill Reynolds leaves his job as a counselor at Bolsa Grande High School and rushes to Southern California College where he changes into a Vanguard shirt, grabs a practice rundown sheet and heads into SCC’s old-fashioned gymnasium.

Reynolds, 44, may look slightly tired from this double life--high school counselor by day, college basketball coach by night--but he loves what he’s doing.

He’s good at it, too. This week, Reynolds, the only part-time head coach of a National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District 3 team, was named the conference’s Coach of the Year.

“It’s difficult,” Reynolds said. “We have three walk-on coaches after 4 o’clock who have to do the same job as a staff of four full-time coaches and assistants at Biola, Westmont or Cal State Fullerton. It’s just incredible that the system works.”

This season the system has worked better than ever. SCC opened regular season with 11-straight victories and ended it with another 11-straight wins. The Vanguards posted a 24-4 overall record and won the NAIA District 3 Southern Division conference title with a 9-2 record. The Vanguards begin the first round of the NAIA playoffs at 7:30 tonight against Fresno Pacific at SCC.

The melding of community and church at the Costa Mesa parochial school creates a warm, friendly atmosphere. And Reynolds, who became a Christian in 1975 at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp at UC Santa Barbara, is perfectly suited to the environment. There’s a folksy spirit in his coaching style.

“During Bill’s first year here, the guys started calling themselves ‘The Family’,” said assistant coach Jeff Malstead, who has been with the SCC basketball program for about 10 years. “They started saying that after every time out, after breaking every huddle and after every game and it just kind of stuck. But that’s what it’s like at SCC, we’re all family. It really is a unique atmosphere here.”

The Vanguards, dubbed the “Hardy Boys of the Hardwood,” by one Orange County college basketball coach, are a close-knit group that adhere to Christian principles and ideals. They attend chapel three times a week, take religion courses (as required) and pray before games.

“Some people may think ‘The Family’ is kind of corny,” Reynolds said. “But I think our kids really feel a lot of compassion and attachment toward each other as people, instead of just another body on the team. They’re a part of the whole college community, which is also a part of the family of Christ and they share a lot of the same ideals and beliefs.”

Indeed, the players have similar backgrounds. The Vanguards are a collection of former-NCAA Division II or Division I players and junior college transfers who have found a home in Costa Mesa.

“The players we get have always been kind of misfits,” said assistant coach Larry Hirst, who was a four-year Vanguard starter. “For one reason or another, big schools don’t want them or don’t recruit them. We’re not the cream of the crop. But Reynolds takes all these players from all these different schools and makes them into one great team. He does an incredible job, especially for a part-time coach.”

In Reynolds’ four years at SCC he has compiled a 86-34 record and watched the Vanguards advance to the NAIA District 3 playoffs four times. Last year, the Vanguards finished 22-9 and won the Southern Divison title, just a game away from a trip to the NAIA championship in Kansas City.

Will the Vanguards be going to Kansas City this season?

“I think we have a good chance,” Reynolds said. “If we can just play intense basketball for 40 minutes for three nights well, then, . . . I think we can do it.”

Reynolds talks a lot about intensity, and beneath his soft-spoken, polite persona there is a strong, driven individual.

“He’s a very hard worker,” Malstead said. “He’s always on the phone, always recruiting, always thinking about the team. He works harder than anyone I know.”

Said Hirst: “Reynold’s stresses intensity because of our free-flowing offensive style. We have to play intensely, especially on defense because it stops our opponents from scoring. . . . But Reynolds’ intensity also points back to the Family concept. His strategy and motivation involves a close team concept. It almost sounds too good to be true, but Reynolds, virtually on his own as a part-time coach, has formed and molded a very good team that gets along very well.”

Watching the Vanguards play in their gym is like stepping into a time warp, back to small-town America in the 1950s. Some people can’t believe The Pit, the official name for the Vanguard’s gymnasium, when they see it. The Pit was brought to SCC in two pieces in the early 1960s. Even after a $40,000 renovation last fall, which expanded the gym from 550 seats to 1,300, it still is smaller than many high school gyms. There’s no aisle or walkway along courtside. The front row of the four-tier bleachers rests less than a foot from the court boundary line. Players take the ball out of court by stepping over an imaginary line, which is marked off at the front-row fans’ feet.

Reynolds is proud of The Pit, and knows the intimate atmosphere gives his team a strong advantage. True to form, the Vanguards have lost only once at home this season.

“It’s tough to play there,” Point Loma-Nazarene Coach Ben Foster said. “Not because you’re the visiting team, but because the crowd is right on top of you, they’re so close to the bench and the court. At other schools, including Point Loma, there’s not near the impact.”

Reynolds’ impact at SCC is just beginning to be felt. Prior to coming to SCC as an assistant in 1980, Reynolds coached for more than 21 years at several high schools including La Quinta and Bolsa Grande. When Reynolds assumed the head coaching position at SCC in 1981, he wasn’t sure if he was up to the challenge.

“I had never heard or seen of Southern California College,” Reynolds said. “Then, one day I was wandering around and came to SCC and watched them practice. It was fate or something. I mean, this was the only college team in the area with an afternoon practice and with my job as a counselor, it fit with my schedule. . . . When the head coaching position was offered to me, I was unsure how it would fit into my life. I prayed on it and thought about it and it seemed perfect.”