Benefield: Montgomery High School coach Steve Bell retires to care for parents

For more than 50 years, Ruth and Bob Bell have warmed the seats at the Montgomery High School gym, the baseball diamond, and the football and soccer fields.

Their five kids, all Vikings, kept them busy in every manner of sport. Ruth and Bob were always there.

When some of those kids became coaches themselves, Ruth and Bob were always there.

When some of those kids had kids of their own, kids who donned the Viking colors and represented Montgomery, Ruth and Bob were there.

“They literally have been there, 50-something years,” said Steve Bell, Ruth and Bob’s son and the longtime Vikings girls basketball coach.

So it makes poignant sense since Ruth, 91, and Bob, 92, can’t make many Vikings games, that Steve, one of the most successful coaches in Redwood Empire history, is hanging up his whistle to give a little time back to his parents, who gave so much time to their kids and grandkids.

“It was an easy decision to make because it was a no-brainer. You are taking care of family,” he said. “It was a hard, hard thing to express to the players because it all came down rather quickly.”

He makes it clear - this was not a choice, it was a given.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support from my folks over the years,” he said. “While they might not understand all of it, they understand. They understand that I’m here for them, that this is the place that I need to be and where I want to be.”

Bell is without peer in the coaching ranks.

In 26 years, his squads have racked up 523 wins. That’s an average of more than 20 wins a season. That kind of consistency in a high school program? Phenomenal.

North Bay League titles? Plenty. North Coast Section appearances? At least 23. NorCals? Four times.

“Even before Cardinal Newman girls, they were the measuring stick, they were the standard of girls basketball in the North Bay,” said Sil Coccia, the recently retired coach of the Sonoma Valley girls basketball team. “Steve is an incredibly well respected coach.”

And he consistently cultivated success in his teams, year after year. Almost without fail. Despite that, Coccia described him as almost maddeningly modest. Zen-like.

“To me, he’s the ultimate statesman for girls basketball,” Coccia said. “I believe he’s done more for advancing girls basketball than anybody in the Empire,” he said. “I have the utmost admiration for Steve. He is the emeritus guy. It’s going to be hard to replace that.”

The Vikings are in better position than most to make a smooth transition after the longest-tenured girls basketball coach in the region takes his leave.

Darryl LaBlue, the Vikings’ junior varsity coach since the 1990-91 season, has worked alongside Bell from the day both men took their jobs. In 26 years, the Vikings have had just four coaches for the varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams.

“That tells you right there, there’s something special here,” LaBlue said.

And it starts with Bell.

He talks about program and community and team. Almost like a family.

“He’s always had the kids first. It’s never about his wins and the championships,” LaBlue said. “He had a way of making the kids play better than maybe they thought they could.”

Bell put it this way: “I know what you can do, it’s what you will do that matters.”

Sometimes athletes - heck, sometimes people - have skills and gifts they never tap. Sometimes fear holds them back, or a lack of discipline or drive.

Bell tried to pull that out of kids, give them the tools to find out just what they could, and would, do.

“Usually when you watch him, he keeps it very level headed, but you can’t take that as he doesn’t demand a very high standard of you. He’s got a high standard,” said his daughter, Christina Gilmore, a highly decorated athlete who played basketball for her dad and went on to play soccer professionally.

When I tried to drill down with Bell and find out which was his “best” team, or when the Vikings had their greatest run, he demurred.

“Each of them mattered to me,” he said. “I don’t want to break that up.”

He talked about a squad that went 3-23. LaBlue remembers that team.

“He didn’t coach them any different than if they were 23-3,” he said. “I think they got a lot out of it. I think they realized that basketball is about more than winning.”

After so many years of putting care and commitment into the program, Bell said it’s surreal not to be in the gym.

But he has no doubt about his decision. He said it was no decision at all. It was a given.

“Right now I’m where I should be,” he said. “They took care of me for many years. It’s the least I could do.”

When I talked to Bell about his retirement, he must have said 100 times how much help and support he’s had over the years - from his wife, Sheila; his kids, Scott and Christina; from LaBlue and the Montgomery community.

And he talked about Ruth and Bob. About Ruth’s playing bus driver in the family van, carting athletes to and from countless games and practices. About Bob’s love of high school sports. About their coming to home games no matter what.

About, without fail, always being there.

In light of that, I kept returning to what Bell had said earlier. He was talking about sports and team, but he might as well have been talking about life and family.

“I know what you can do, it’s what you will do that matters.”

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”