Wearing the same colors
Wearing the same colors
At 4 p.m. on a perfect afternoon in late May, Centennial’s varsity baseball team takes the field for their last game of the season — indeed, the last game of anyone’s season: the CIF Central Section championship game.
Randy Roberts, 54, the only head baseball coach in the school’s 14-year history, stands alongside players wearing the red and gold as they pause for the National Anthem.
He isn’t the only Roberts in attendance.
Clutching a scorebook and squinting toward the American flag is Brooke, 55, Centennial’s varsity volleyball coach and Randy’s wife of 32 years. Together, they are arguably the winningest husband-wife coaching duo in Kern County’s history.
With 16 CIF Valley titles to their collective credit, that distinction will likely stand.
Both are freshmen P.E. teachers and are fixtures on Centennial’s campus in the way that Tommy Lasorda was to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
You can’t remember a time before they were there.
They didn’t always teach together. Randy worked at North High School when Brooke was coaching Garces High to two Valley championships. They had two small children, Justin and Lacey, who would work the scoreboard and wear the school colors of the parent whose team had a game.
But as their children grew, Randy and Brooke realized that if they were to succeed off the field, they would do better on the same team. So when the head volleyball coaching position opened up at North High in 1988, Brooke took it.
“We always knew we wanted to coach together,” said Brooke.
From that day, the Robertses have been an inseparable duo, on and off the field. When Centennial opened its doors in 1993, Randy and Brooke became Golden Hawks.
“Being at the same school is the answer to our lifestyle,” said Brooke. “The days we didn’t teach and coach together, I don’t even remember.”
Luckily, memory serves everyone else.
“Brooke had won at Garces and North, and Randy had come from football and softball,” said Becky Porter, Centennial’s activity director, who, along with both Robertses, started working at Centennial the year it opened.
“They were instrumental (along with football and cross-country) to establish Centennial as a power to be reckoned with, even while (the school) was still young.”
A power, indeed. Since the school opened, Randy has led his teams to nine league championships and three Valley titles, while Brooke has also collected nine league championships and eight Valley crowns, and both coaches as recently as 2007.
“The Robertses have dedicated themselves to their programs and to coaching young people,” said Porter.
They must be doing something right.
“A lot of their success is because they are really great with kids. They are upbeat, positive, great motivators and energetic — plus they know what they’re doing,” said longtime friend and former North High varsity baseball coach, Tony Silver.
“They’re going to get the best out of their kids most of the time. She did it at Garces, and he did it at North.”
Perhaps that’s the formula for success. Or maybe it’s something more personal. Maybe it’s a family affair.
Son, Justin, now 27, a teacher and former Golden Hawk himself, is also an assistant coach at Centennial. Lacey, 24, who teaches P.E. at Stonecreek Junior High School, cheers from the stands with Justin’s wife, Kim. And beside Brooke near the home team’s dugout is Randy’s dad, E.T., who has missed only a handful of games since the beginning of Randy’s coaching career.
Keeping the family close was always a priority. “Wherever we were, that’s where the kids were going to go,” said Randy.
They grew up on buses, on sidelines, and were baby-sat by quarterbacks and volleyball players who taught them the nuances of being on a team.
Having some of the city’s best athletes as baby sitters presented its own challenges.
“We had to let (our kids) know early that it wasn’t who could shower or brush their teeth the fastest,” remembered Randy. “Everything was always a race.”
Despite the obvious advantages of working together, it just made sense that these two competitive personalities would rather share school loyalties, too.
“It’s not just about being on the same campus,” said Brooke. “It’s about pulling for the same team. Working at the same school means you’re not pulled in any direction you don’t want to be pulled.”
Spending so much of their formative years at North High’s games, Justin and Lacey naturally assumed they would also wear the red and gray. But when Mom and Dad switched to Centennial, it was an adjustment the kids had to make.
“We were traded!” joked Justin, who his parents say took the school switch the toughest.
Living in the Southwest, their children should have gone to high school at Stockdale High, but to Randy and Brooke, that was never an option.
“We didn’t want to compete against each other, and we didn’t want to compete against our children,” recalled Brooke. “We wanted to be wearing the same colors.”
Of all the formulas people seek for success, maybe it’s as easy as that: wearing the same colors.
