If you ever catch yourself at a Mission San Jose High football game, you might notice defensive coordinator Kevin Bella being a little more flamboyant than normal as he directs his players. He does an abundance of hand gesturing and flails his arms around a lot more than his counterparts.
There’s a good reason for that — he’s deaf.
“We like to call it the Mission Sign Language,” Mission’s first-year coach Sam Baugh said.
Bella is no stranger to the game and this area. He’s got quite a resume.
He coached at California School for the Deaf in Fremont in 2002 and 2008-2011. In 2002. he coached CSD to the best season in school history with a school-record nine wins. The Eagles went to the North Coast Section Class B title game and suffered a thrilling 30-19 loss to Tomales. That capped a 9-3 season. CSD was also tri-champions of the Bay Football League.
After a six-year hiatus, Bella came back to CSD in 2008. Last year, the Eagles went 8-4 and made the semifinals of the Division V playoffs. They suffered a 20-19 loss to Hoopa Valley to end the season.
Bella and CSD parted ways at the end of January in what he calls, “a mutual decision.”
But he didn’t want to stop coaching.
Enter Mission.
Baugh had been corresponding with Bella, trying to shore up a nonleague game. Then Baugh got an email from Bella that said he wasn’t the coach anymore. A few weeks went by and Bella sent an email to Baugh asking if he was looking for some help on his staff.
“When I took over, we only had two people from the previous staff, so we were looking to fill some spots,” Baugh said. “We had been interviewing some coaches. I asked him if he wanted to come over and meet. That first meeting we did a lot of writing and gesturing. But we figured out we could communicate just fine. He had a wealth of football knowledge, and I asked him to come out for spring ball.”
That was Bella’s first chance to meet the players.
“At first it was hard to communicate with him,” said Eric Gonzalez, a three-year varsity linebacker. “After about midway through the first day, we started to catch onto all the signals.”
The situation worked for everyone. Baugh got to fill a coaching hole, the players got a coach who was very knowledgeable and Bella got to keep coaching.
“I’m grateful to Sam for giving us the opportunity to coach at this school,” Bella said through an interpreter. The challenge is different than at a deaf school. There are some communication issues and dealing with a lot more players at a large school.”
Bella also brought his defensive line coach with him, Jeff Bibb. He is also deaf.
Both still work at CSD. Bella teaches in the career center and Bibb is an adjustment teacher.
“Football is a passion and I am glad I get to coach at Mission,” Bibb said through an interpreter.
Neither coach would say what their long-term goals are. And neither know of any deaf coaches who coach at hearing schools.
“I take it one day at a time and we’re here to support Sam’s vision,” Bella said.
Added Bibb: “I never think too far ahead.”
