Call Him Coach
Legendary Hayward coach. Popular Sun City retiree. Friend and mentor to many. His name: Jim Bisenius
Next month, October 24, about 30 Hayward High alumni and their spouses will gather for the annual ‘69er luncheon at Sierra View Country Club in Roseville, California, near Sacramento.
This lunch and festive social event draws its name from the Hayward High Class of 1969, which serves as host for the afternoon. Most of the attendees will hail from that class too, though this year should also see representatives from the classes of ‘64, ‘70, and ‘76.
This lively group of ‘69er Farmers—the mascot of the school—has come together to drink, eat, and reminisce for 28 consecutive years. And for every one of those years, one man and his wife have been the Guests of Honor. The couple is planning to attend this October as well, which will bump the number up to 29 years in a row.
How did they come to be named as the Guests of Honor for a high school reunion for four straight decades? It seemed a question well worth looking into, although once we began to delve into it the answer turned out to be pretty straightforward, like the man himself.
Here are nine little vignettes that may help to explain why Coach is beloved and respected by so many:
1. This Is A Man Who Loves His Wife
After finishing up a three-year hitch with the United States Marine Corps in 1956, Jim Bisenius enrolled in Mayville State Teachers College in North Dakota. It was his goal to become a teacher and coach, and since he grew up in a tiny North Dakota town a stone’s throw away from the Canadian border, the college seemed a natural fit for him.
Plus, the G.I. Bill paid him $110 a month for his school expenses and tuition.
A football, basketball, and track star for the Walhalla High Eagles, Jim played sports at Mayville too. One day, while waiting in line with a friend at the school cafeteria, a pretty young coed named Helen caught his eye. They struck up a conversation that one might say has never stopped. She too was a native North Dakotan with designs on becoming a teacher.
One problem, though. Helen was younger than he was. Worried that she would think he was too old—or worse, that her father would think he was too old to date his daughter—he lied about his age in the beginning.
They worked it out though. Jim is 91 now, and the two of them live a happy and comfortable life in a home on a golf course in the Del Webb retirement community of Sun City in Roseville. Coach and Mrs. B celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this August.
2. He Can Dance, Too!
Another quick anecdote about Coach and his lovely bride:
When they were dating, or sometime early in their marriage, Jim noticed that something was wrong. Helen loved to dance. She was good at it too, unlike him.
“She was a dancer,” he recalls, “and I wasn’t. Finally I got tired of sitting around watching her dance and have a good time without me. So I enrolled in the Arthur Murray dance studio and I learned to dance.”
3. His Life’s Calling Was Baseball
In the early 1960s the young couple moved to California because Jim had landed a job as a high school teacher in a growing suburban community in the East Bay hills across the bay from San Francisco. The school’s name was Hayward, same as the city where they settled, and over the years he taught business and other subjects, coached basketball, and performed a variety of other duties at the school.
But the thing he became known for—what he loved more than practically anything else except his wife, two sons, and his family—what, for him, was less a job and more of a calling, his life’s calling—was coaching baseball.
For close to 30 years, until his retirement in the ‘90s, the Hayward High baseball program became so identified with him that he became known, simply, as “Coach.”
In fact, people still call him that, particularly his former players such as Dennis Bragonier. Bragonier, a member of the Class of ‘69 who is expected to be on the scene for the October lunch, played baseball for the Farmers and still remembers the day when—well, let’s let him tell the story:
“In our senior year we were playing a game at Hayward High. Coach was coaching at third base. I hit a ball in the left center field gap. When I was rounding second I decided to try and stretch it into a triple. The throw came to third on a close play. I made a beautiful hook slide to avoid the tag at third. The only problem was that I did not hook the base as I slid by. I slid right into the coaches box and took out Coach Bisenius as he went ass over tea kettle. I was tagged out and Coach got up and threw his hat down in disgust and stomped on it. Needless to say, I was a little embarrassed.”
4. Mentored Many Fine Players…
Dennis Bragonier was not embarrassed very often in any sport or on any playing field in his athletic career. A terrific multi-sport athlete at Hayward, one of the school’s very best in its history, he went on to play defensive back for Stanford University and a season for the San Francisco 49ers.
Bragonier was only one of many elite athletes who benefited from Coach’s tutelage and helped make the program so successful. Under Bisenius, Hayward baseballers won 25 league titles and in his final season as coach, in 1992, they captured the California state high school championship at the Oakland Coliseum.
Thirty-seven of his high school players went on to sign professional baseball contracts. Here are two more HHS alumni who played for him who went on to big things:
Jack Del Rio. A powerhouse All-American linebacker at USC, he became an All-Pro NFL linebacker and played 11 seasons for Minnesota and other teams. Upon retiring from active play, his career took him into coaching. He served as head coach for both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders and is now advising the University of Wisconsin football program.
Don Wakamatsu. The first Asian-American manager in major league baseball history, Wakamatsu has piloted the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers and coached the Oakland Athletics. He is now an executive with the minor league Oakland Ballers baseball team.
5. …And One Very Fine Broadcaster
As a baseball broadcaster Jon Miller stands shoulder to shoulder with Vin Scully, Red Barber, and Bob Uecker in Major League. As the long-time “voice” of the San Francisco Giants, he may not be the game’s best radio play-by-play man ever, but he definitely belongs in the discussion.
He is also a graduate of Hayward High, Class of ‘69, and he too owes a debt to Coach.
Jon has told this story many times, and his version of it is far better than the one I will tell here. Nevertheless, here goes:
It is the late 1960s. Jon is a reserve catcher for the Farmer nine. “Reserve” is a euphemism for a guy who sits on the bench and yells encouraging things to the players on the field.
His coach is the kindly and understanding Mayville Teachers College graduate who, one day, takes his second-string catcher to the side and puts a fatherly arm around his shoulder.
“Son,” Coach tells him. “For a catcher, you’ve got a golden voice. Stick with that.”
Coach’s gracious ushering of Jon off the field of play and into his true life’s calling was a pivotal moment for the future National Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster. After receiving the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence and being inducted into that hallowed Cooperstown hall, the Giants held a pre-game ceremony in honor of Jon at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
One of the four V.I.P. speakers that evening, who stood on the field and told a packed stadium about his advice to Jon during his high school days, was Coach.
6. Has a Unique Talent
Ray Melville is yet another ‘69 Hayward High grad who played baseball (he was a catcher) for Bisenius and now regards him as a close friend. He is, says Ray, “a man who’s changed a lot of lives for the better. Coach and Helen are like a second father and mother to a lot of us alumni.”
About ten years ago Coach Bisenius himself became a Hall of Famer, being inducted into the Mayville State University Hall of Fame after a sterling sports career in which he pitched for the school in the small college NAIA World Series and starred in other sports as well. Unbeknownst to him, Ray and Jon Miller flew to North Dakota to be on hand for the ceremony and surprise their old coach. It surprised him all right, and it was a wonderful moment for all.
But, because they have been friends for so long, Ray has come to know a side of Coach that not many people get to see—the canine side. We’ll let Ray, a genuinely funny fellow, take it from here—
“About 20 years ago,” he recalls, “Coach and Helen, me and my wife Nancy, and Chris (Class of '69—yes!) and Gaye Lauritzen went to Ruth's Chris Steak House in Roseville for dinner. We must have had 2-for-1 coupons to the place or something. At any rate, way beyond our pay scale.
“The restaurant was crowded. Standing room only. Reservations were backed up, so we decided to wait outside on some benches until they could seat us.
“While we were waiting, we all kept hearing this dog barking. Faintly at first, then slightly louder with the decibel level of the bark/yelp/woof continuing to climb by stages. But even with all of us looking around, we could not find or see any dog.”
Ray continues, “A hound barking was way out of context for an upscale area like the Galleria in Roseville. (This was long before the era when people were bringing their dogs with them to every venue imaginable. Maybe that was the norm for Carmel back then, but not Roseville).
“Other guests waiting to be seated heard the ‘hound sound’ as well. Kids were looking around wildly to see where Rover was. Adults, too. It was sort of like trying to locate the siren of a fire engine en route to an emergency—nobody could see where the sound was coming from.
“We saw no wagging tail. No Beagle, no Shih Tze (say that fast three times), no Yorkshire Terrier. It wasn't a sad bark, but not a happy bark either. Not a howl, not a growl. Sort of a strong yap. If this invisible dog appeared on The Voice, I’d say the yap would resonate somewhere between a tenor and a baritone.
“And it was very strange. The sound carried like it was always 30 feet away, but 30 feet in every direction. Confusing at best.
“Finally, Coach turned around with a sh-t eating grin on his face—or, to honor Coach, a crap-eating grin, as he has always hated off color words—and ‘yapped’ at all of us except Helen, who had heard and seen this act many times in the past.
“Rich Little couldn't have done that dog impression any better. We told Coach he could be hired by Disney as a part time voice actor, barking for Pluto, Huckleberry Hound, Goofy, and Scoobie-Doo. Barking impressions, I'm sure, isn't a full time gig, but maybe it could have been another one of Coach's Fifteen Minutes of Fame.”
7. A Nice Guy, Yes. Also a Tough Competitor
As sweetly nostalgic as this piece is (or hopes to be), please do not be misled about the nature of Jim Bisenius as a coach or player. In any contest between his team and the opposing team, his strong preference was for the other team to walk away with the L.
In Sun City, where he and Helen have lived for more than two decades, he swung hard and connected often on the community’s 55-and-older softball team. His last year on the squad, when he was in his eighties, his batting average was a gaudy .700.
His Sun City club qualified to play several times at the world senior softball championship held annually at St. George, Utah. Teams from around the globe compete. One year Bisenius and Co. won the whole thing in their division.
Coach is no slouch when it comes to basketball either. Some years ago, in his seventies, a women’s club basketball team came to Roseville to put on a teaching clinic and skills demonstration. About 250 seniors attended. During the clinic the women invited two members of the Sun City community to play them in a game of 2-on-2.
Coach, who was in his seventies, stepped up to the challenge along with another man his age. They beat the women’s twosome in the first game. When the women, a bit taken aback by their loss, asked for a rematch, Coach and his partner gave it to them. Then they beat them again.
8. Knows the Meaning of “Ducks on the Pond”
Several people from the Class of 1969 responded when asked for their memories of Coach for this article. One of them was Randy Graham who, among his many other attributes, happened to be my next door neighbor in Hayward when growing up. This is what Randy wrote:
“My first memory of meeting Coach was when I played Senior League baseball. It was the summer, I was just out of eighth grade, and one of our pitchers didn’t show up for the start of the game. I was handed the baseball and told to warm up. I was not a pitcher and didn’t throw consistent strikes, but I didn’t do badly in the two innings I pitched for the Shamrocks.
“Coach watched the game from behind the backstop and approached me after the game, saying he was scouting for Hayward High. He told me, “You’re not what I’m looking for in a pitcher, but you’d make an excellent outfielder. You have a strong arm. You should try out for our freshman team.”
“That was Coach in a nutshell. He was always looking for good talent for his teams and advising those of us who desperately needed coaching. I remember one game playing for Coach in my senior year. Ray Melville was on third base, Dennis Bragonier was on second, my brother John was in the batter’s box, and I was in the warm-up circle. John walked, loading the bases.
“I took one last practice swing and walked to the plate. Coach came out from behind the chain-link fence and waved me over. “Ducks on the pond, Randy, ducks on the pond,” was all he said and walked back.
“I had no idea what that meant at the time, but he inspired me. On the first pitch, I hit a line drive to left field, scoring two runs. Coach inspired confidence in me and all of his young men, whether they were on his basketball or baseball teams.
“We reconnected when the Coach and Mrs. B retired to Roseville. I am proud to call him my coach and my friend.”
9. Influenced Young Lives for the Good
One more Class of ‘69 grad is Greg Schmitz. When I contacted him he wrote in an email, “I don’t have any specific stories about Coach Bisenius, other than the fact that I was his team manager scorekeeper and student athletic trainer for his baseball teams during my high school career and I always appreciated the fact that he provided me an opportunity to hone my leadership skills and skills dealing with responsibility, etc. He is a great role model for me too.”
Well, that’s a pretty good story after all, Greg, and a strong testament to the influence a teacher and coach can have on a young person at a crucial time in his life. Ray Melville tells another story about Coach B’s shaping influence on young people:
“So, Kevin, here’s a memory that will stick with me forever. Coach and I and a bunch of other Hayward people were at a Giants game. We went up to see Jon Miller in the broadcast booth at Oracle, and as we were walking back to our seats this guy who was in his forties stopped us and said, ‘Hi, Coach Bisenius!’
“He had played for Coach at Hayward, and he told us how excited he was to make the team and play for him. The confidence it gave him helped him make it through high school. And that was just the beginning. He went on to say that he never had a father figure and that Coach Bisenius filled that void in his life.
“Being on that team inspired him to be a good father to his own children. A cycle was broken. Tears came to his eyes, and you could see and feel the honest and deep emotions etched in his face.
“When we got back to our seats I told Coach we had to call his wife and tell her what just happened. But when I called Helen I was so emotional about it I couldn’t finish the whole story. I had to hand the phone over to Coach, who finished it for me. For me, that experience defines Coach and what he means to so many of us. What a man, and a coach, he is.”
In the interests of full disclosure, I played for Coach Bisenius on the frosh-soph basketball team in my first two years at Hayward. Most of the teams we played walked away with an L, too.
Thanks Kevin,
I didn’t know him well so interesting to learn his background. I forwarded your post to my brother,Rick as he was a 69er
What great stories! Coach B sounds like an amazing person to know.