Post by coachdoug on Feb 16, 2008 14:02:00 GMT -6
Yesterday Los Angeles SWAT Officer Randall Simmons was laid to rest. He was killed in the line of duty last week when he jumped in front of another officer and took a bullet in the throat. He was the first SWAT officer to be killed in the 40+ year history of the SWAT program in Los Angeles.
No only was Officer Simmons a respected officer of the law, he was an excellent youth football coach in the El Segundo program, which is a part of our league, the Pacific Coast Conference. Randy was very involved wih youth - at his funeral, his wife and family reserved the area immediately behind the family for his former players and youths from a church youth fellowship group with which he was involved.
I did not know Coach Simmons personally. I met him and knew of him, though. He played cornerback at Washington State before joining the Los Angeles police force. He lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, which is a very exclusive, well-to-do community. Nonetheless, he always stayed close to the disadvantaged youth that he came in contact with through his police work and through his church groups.
When it came time for his sons to play youth ball, he could have simply signed them up in the Palos Verdes program, which is the winningest, most succesful program in our league. Instead, he took them to El Segundo, probably the least winning program in the entire league. He joined up with Dean Pliaconis, the president of the El Segundo program and head coach of his son's team. While El Segundo is something of a Mayberry RFD community itself, it is much closer to the ghetto areas of L.A., and Coach Simmons was able to bring in some youth from South-Central L.A. (which is an open territory in our league). Most of these kids would never have had a chance to play ball or be part of a team otherwise. I always admired Randy for helping these kids get a chance to learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, the value of hard work, and other life lessons that many of us take for granted.
Two years ago, Dean and Randy's team was in the Midget division (age 11-14 - mostly 8th graders). They played our program's Midget team (not the team I coach) in the conference finals, winning 40-26 on their way to a National Championship (AYF). It was truly a remarkable story.
In a sadly ironic twist on an already sad story, another coach from that championship game, (Redondo assistant coach, and my good friend) Mike Durden (who played collegiately with UCLA and in the NFL with San Francisco and the Jets) also died recently (last November) from complications related to diabetes.
Randy Simmons' funeral was attended by over 10,000 people, making it the largest funeral in Los Angeles history. Police officers from all over the nation and even several from foreign countires came to pay their respects.
The streets of heaven will be safer with you there, Randy. But, today, your death is a tremendous loss for those of us still here on earth. You wil be missed.
No only was Officer Simmons a respected officer of the law, he was an excellent youth football coach in the El Segundo program, which is a part of our league, the Pacific Coast Conference. Randy was very involved wih youth - at his funeral, his wife and family reserved the area immediately behind the family for his former players and youths from a church youth fellowship group with which he was involved.
I did not know Coach Simmons personally. I met him and knew of him, though. He played cornerback at Washington State before joining the Los Angeles police force. He lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, which is a very exclusive, well-to-do community. Nonetheless, he always stayed close to the disadvantaged youth that he came in contact with through his police work and through his church groups.
When it came time for his sons to play youth ball, he could have simply signed them up in the Palos Verdes program, which is the winningest, most succesful program in our league. Instead, he took them to El Segundo, probably the least winning program in the entire league. He joined up with Dean Pliaconis, the president of the El Segundo program and head coach of his son's team. While El Segundo is something of a Mayberry RFD community itself, it is much closer to the ghetto areas of L.A., and Coach Simmons was able to bring in some youth from South-Central L.A. (which is an open territory in our league). Most of these kids would never have had a chance to play ball or be part of a team otherwise. I always admired Randy for helping these kids get a chance to learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, the value of hard work, and other life lessons that many of us take for granted.
Two years ago, Dean and Randy's team was in the Midget division (age 11-14 - mostly 8th graders). They played our program's Midget team (not the team I coach) in the conference finals, winning 40-26 on their way to a National Championship (AYF). It was truly a remarkable story.
In a sadly ironic twist on an already sad story, another coach from that championship game, (Redondo assistant coach, and my good friend) Mike Durden (who played collegiately with UCLA and in the NFL with San Francisco and the Jets) also died recently (last November) from complications related to diabetes.
Randy Simmons' funeral was attended by over 10,000 people, making it the largest funeral in Los Angeles history. Police officers from all over the nation and even several from foreign countires came to pay their respects.
The streets of heaven will be safer with you there, Randy. But, today, your death is a tremendous loss for those of us still here on earth. You wil be missed.
