Ed Boyle, Dean of Mendo College Basketball
According to my informal record keeping, Ed Boyle is first in a few major areas: a. Along with 10 other faculty, Ed was an original full time teacher at Mendocino College, begun in 1973; b. Ed also was first in the region (2007) to be inducted into the Community College Men’s basketball coaches association Hall of Fame (less than 100 statewide); c. Ed has the distinction of serving as head basketball coach of the Mendocino Community College Eagles for 29 years and d. Ed is also the first and only gatekeeper at the Parducci’s estate in Rogina Heights.
Meet the original Administration and faculty members at Mendocino College. (It was 1973 and the address was the Mendocino County Fairgrounds). Peter Devries was the president, Pau Alcantra-dean of Instruction, Paul Rodie-business Manager; Tom Mcmillan-dean of Students; Bob Alto-theater, Holly Brachman- Art, Phil Bertch- Music, Doug Puckering- biology and math, Ermas Kaldveer- Biology, Sarah Essa- History, Gerald DEBonaire-astronomy, Barbara Burns- English, Greg Foster-psychology, and Ed Boyle- Athletic Director and Basketball Coach. According to Ed, early faculty also included: Larry Ladina-ceramics; Jan Donuler- Automotive Technology and Leila Cassidy-librarian. Here’s Boyle’s story of landing at the fairgrounds in the first blush of Mendocino College:
“Chuck Davison, the Willits High School principal at the time told me about the job up here; but I didn’t get the position at first. The first fellow wasn’t impressed with the facilities, so I got a second interview, landed the position; andi left being an assistant basketball coach at San Francisco State College (and freshman coach), and we started practicing at the old Mendocino State Hospital, which was taken out of service in 1972. We played in the present day Buddhist Temple, where there was no heat nor running water. That year, we may have won two games.” By scanning Mr. Boyle’s stories, you will note that he has not missed a beat; these stories are precise, detailed and full of fun.
The early Eagle teams played games at local high schools, after the younger kids finished practice, so it was typical for Mendo home games to be played at UHS (Pomolita Campus) in the early 1970’s starting at 8:15. Boyle: “Butte College was our nemesis and nearly always won conference, but in 1976-77, they were 9- 0 and we were 100, and we played at Chessel Gym at Pomolita. We had to hold the game up to get all the people in. It was packed with celebrants going to Mardi Gras. Our team consisted of Jack Claunch and Mike Edwards from UHS, Art Lardie from Mendocino High, along with LA kids’ Point Guard Peter Garrett (who had a huge following), Kenny Newkirk and Robert Haskins. In those days there was no 35 second clock nor 3 pointer. We trailed by a basket late in the game, so on offense we went with the old North Carolina 4- corner stall. We held the ball for minutes, but missed the last shot.” Butte again prevailed.
Another tale reflective of the era: “After Tom McMillan drove all the way over to do the ticket sales at one game in Ft. Bragg, we had one fan attend. In those days, we didn’t have much of a following because all our games were away.”
“We were in the Camino Norte League with Santa Rosa JC, Contra Costa, Alameda (all big colleges) in just our second year. In our third year, we were put in the Golden Valley Conference with Shasta, Butte, Lassen, Yuba, and Feather River, but travel was brutal; we had the highway 20 blues. We did overnights because it was so far away, so we went on the road with College of the Redwoods, our travel partner. There were 11 teams in our conference.”
Boyle on travel: “We developed great friendships with The College of the Redwoods and coach Bill Treglown, by staying in the same hotels on the road. Bill and I were both Chico State grads and big time competitors over the years. We played each other 62 times. He had a slight edge because he got me early. We played in each others’ tournaments and actually qualified for the state basketball finals twice. But, the year Redwood won the Golden Valley Conference, we beat them four times.” A coach remembers those vital bragging rights.
Ed continues: “Then we were moved to Bay Area schools with Santa Rosa, Diablo Valley, Merritt, Marin, and Alameda, which was a better travel situation for us. Recruiting was always a hassle. In the early days, you could not recruit outside Lake and Mendocino County, unless the athlete contacted you first. I had extensive contacts in the Bay Area since the SF State frosh played many of the junior colleges there, so I got a lot of calls. The football coach in those days was Larry Mcleitch, who had contacts in the LA area with inner-city high schools. Everyone agreed that the cultural shift for those kids was a great experience for them, as they came up here and were successful. We got some outstanding athletes from the Santa Monica and LA areas.”
Boyle’s route to Ukiah was unique, being born in the East Bay, going to St. Ignatius HS in Oakland while growing up in San Leandro. Then, it was on to Chabot College, where the team went 26- 4, and 6’ point guard Boyle started. Ed: “We had the California JC player of the year on that squad, and I fell in love with the game of basketball. I got a scholarship to Chico State and completed my 4 year degree and teaching credential there.” Boyle began coaching at Willows High School and then moved up with mentor Jerry Waugh to SF State. “I was head frosh coach and varsity assistant for the Gators, as I was thrown into the decision-making position suddenly. I learned on the job, but realized that my job security was based on the success of 18 year old kids; in other words, good recruiting equaled job retention.”
In the 1980’s, the team was really good for 5- 6 years, and Boyle loved Carl Purdy Hall. “You could get 100-500 people in there and we had a real homecourt advantage, added Ed. “We had a place to practice and support from the administration.” The slick wood floor cost a cool $40-50 K in those days, and the team had to take the floor up and put it down for special events. Purdy Hall was a very popular venue in Ukiah.
Part of the Eagles success in those banner years were trainer Doug Howard, who stayed with Mendo for 20 years and Assistant Coach Bill Pauli, from Potter Valley. Boyle elaborates: “This was the late 1970’s- early 80’s and Bill was a grape farmer in Potter Valley and coached out there. He’d drive up in his old truck, pull up his jeans and amble in to join me and the team. We became very close friends, and still reminisce today about those times.”
The recruiting regulations continued to change for JC/CC teams in those days. In the 1990’s recruiting expanded to where you could hustle basketball stars in contiguous counties. Ed: “That really opened things up, and we got better, but it was intense, like 24/7 and 365 days of the year.”
“In the late 90’s- early 2000’s, Kevin Koch, who played at UHS and later for Santa Rosa Community College was my assistant and he was really great. He had many contacts in the Santa Rosa area, and ultimately pulled Billy Offill into the fold for the Eagles. Billy was player of the year in the Redwood Region and played for Mark Georgi in Santa Rosa. Then, Billy and some other SRCC kids transferred up here and we went to the state tournament. Along with Billy, we had Mark Martin, Tim Galletti, Josh Gobel from Montgomery, Matt Dane, and Kyle Heath from UHS. Billy finished his degree at the old Albertson College in Idaho. Offill then went on to be head coach at The College of the Siskiyous College, where Heath joined him as assistant after graduating from Cascades College in Oregon.”
To trace the thread of Offill and Heath; Billy then came back to coach here at Mendocino College about 15 years ago, and remains today. Heath followed Offill into the head coaching position at COS, where he still is.
As these young bucks extended the Boyle influence; Ed, a veteran of 29 years coaching from 1973 until 2002, was ready to go to the sidelines as Koch took the reins. Boyle: “It got to be really stressful with recruiting and I decided to get out. I couldn’t retire, because I was too darn young, but I continued to teach health and PE, as the campus moved up the hill. We were on the fairgrounds for 19 years.”
The PE classrooms and the gym and courts and fields were the last facilities to be built, but Ed would go to Bay Area community colleges and ask them what they didn’t like about their buildings. He noted that It was really a miracle when ours was all built out. You might call it: ‘Boyle’s House’ for his influence in design. These were the banner years (mid 90’s- early 2000’s) in sports as Mendo CC had 5 full-time faculty/coaches. Today, there are none. Sue Blundell (now biology) and Katherine Ingermill (now psychology) were full time coaches during this era. Sue coached softball and Katherine was the volleyball coach.
To trace a bit of the football history, after Dan Drew, there was John Fuller (who brought in Ed Lloyd as an assistant). Lloyd recruited great quarterback Paul Cronin who played for the Eagles for two years. After that era, Lloyd travelled back to Santa Rosa to take the football helm at Cardinal Newman for a successful tenure. Cronin finished his QB career, before following Lloyd into the Cardinal position, where he is today. Lenny Wagner, who is still head coach at Santa Rosa JC. came in the mid teens and Tom Gang was here next in 2011/12. When Tom left, all coaches went to part time.
Boyle concludes: “All the women’s programs struggle now. Especially gifted players get scholarships and we have the others. There are only four teams in the basketball league now, and the lean times are consistent throughout the system. Even, Kelvin Chapman at the end of his coaching career and Ed Schwitzer in volleyball had issues with low turnout. But, Arturo Reyes got Shane Huff to take on soccer and it’s become a major sport here. Girls’ golf has begun as well.”
At Kyle Heath’s induction into the Hall of Fame at Mendocino College, Ed noted to the audience that little Mendocino College (at that time) had three BB coaches in the State CC ranks: Ben Reilly, Kyle Heath, and Kevin Koch. Nice little fraternity! Ed’s sum-up was reflective of all our favorite coaches growing up: “All those road trips and all those hours, I loved being around those kids all those years!”