It's Bye-Bye Birdie for Badminton Coach

Carolyn Jones

Published 4:00 am, Friday, May 21, 1999

The tournament scores were tallied, the ribbons awarded, the pats on the back and words of congratulations all duly delivered.

The only thing left at Castlemont High's girls' gym was for the players and coaches to say goodbye to coach Linda Tague. After 29 years as coach and girls physical education teacher at the East Oakland school, Tague, 55, is retiring. She coached her final game -- a badminton tournament -- last Thursday afternoon.

Tague, whom her players described as strict, hard-driving and tough as nails, betrayed her reputation and got a little teary as students and visiting coaches filed by to thank her and say farewell.

"She's been a one-woman show," said Brenda King, girls' athletic director at rival Oakland High and a former assistant of Tague's. "She takes care of everything: recruiting, uniforms, equipment, scheduling, eligibility, teaching. If she didn't do it, there would be no girls' program here."

Darlene Miller, girls' athletic director at Fremont High and also a Tague protege, agreed. "This is a huge loss for Castlemont," she said. "In the midst of all the chaos, she finds the calm and keeps everything together."

Tague, a Livermore resident, is head of the Physical Education Department, girls' athletic director, a physical education teacher and all- around role model to dozens of girls in the school's sports programs. She repairs equipment, erases graffiti, raises money and is always available for a laugh or a shoulder to cry on.

Over the years, she's coached tennis, basketball (her 1983-84 team finished second in Northern California), volleyball, softball and badminton.

And it's badminton that's sending her out a winner. Castlemont went undefeated in the Oakland Athletic League and won the title. In an especially rewarding twist, the Knights defeated Oakland High to do it -- the same team that edged Castlemont last year for the crown.

"It was shocking, amazing to win the title," said junior Sopath Mey. "If she wasn't here, we wouldn't have a team at all, let alone a championship team. She keeps us together."

Tague's goal as a coach is for every player to achieve her best. Her message to her players is that if they show up, work hard and perform to the best of their abilities, she'll reward them with playing time. In the end, every player, no matter how bad, gets a chance to play as long as she keeps up her end of the bargain.

That philosophy hasn't covered the gym walls with pennants, but it has won her the respect and love of hundreds of students.

The feelings of affection are mutual. Tague said that she's experienced her share of burnout, brought on by funding cutbacks and teachers' strikes, but it's the kids who have kept her motivated all these years.

"Most of the student body you'd give your right arm for," she said. "You love them dearly, you fight fiercely for them, and they don't even know it.

"Sometimes it can all be extremely frustrating, but you do it because you love the kids. It always comes back to that."

One of Tague's prouder moments came a few years ago when she was leading a fund-raising drive to buy lockers. One of her former players saw a newspaper article about Tague's efforts and asked her employer, the Oakland A's, to help. They did. In fact, they bought a whole new set of lockers.

"She told the A's, 'Hey, my school and my coach need help.' And they came to our rescue. Stuff like that is very rewarding," Tague said.

Tague's last day is June 18. After that, she's off on a few golfing vacations, then she's going to start training to bicycle 1,000 miles along the banks of the Mississippi River.

Meanwhile, students on the badminton team are hoping their next coach can hold a candle to Tague.

"She was always telling me to work the sidelines, reach for the birdie, go up a little bit, do this, do that," sophomore Dee Chan said. "She really did a lot for me. I just hope we find a new coach who can keep the team together like she did."