CHUCK CHAMBERLAIN 1940-2021: Longtime Arvin coach remembered as demanding, inspiring

Oct. 14—Equal parts intensity and compassion, Chuck Chamberlain became a fixture at Arvin High for parts of six decades.

The longtime Bears football and baseball coach was demanding, and his unwavering expectations helped inspire a toughness and grit in his players, a quality that fostered a collective belief that there was no obstacle too large to overcome.

Chamberlain practiced what he preached and when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January, he accepted it as a challenge, and was determined to beat the unwelcome disease. The beloved coach lost that fight on Saturday. He was 81.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Marsha, sons Charlie and Brian and three grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Olive Knolls Church, 6201 Fruitvale Ave. He will be buried in the mountains of Colorado near Paonia, where he was born in 1940.

"Shoot, he was battling that thing, thinking he was going to beat it, right until my last conversation with him," said Stockdale baseball coach Greg Showers, who played three years and coached football for 15 with Chamberlain. "At least I was able to tell him how much his guidance, friendship, discipline and love meant to me. I feel good that I was able to tell him what he meant to me, what he meant to all of us."

Current Arvin football coach Edgar Mares, who took over the Bears' program when Chamberlain retired after 37 years in 2001, has similar thoughts about his former coach.

"Coach was a fixture out here (in Arvin) for a long time, so if you lived out here, you knew that someday you wanted to play for Coach Chamberlain," said Mares, a defensive captain who played linebacker and a variety of positions on offense for the Bears' 1990 Central Section football championship, the school's only title during Chamberlain's 37 years as football coach. "The other guys that played before us ... it was tradition ... and then when you got to play for Coach, you kind of saw what it was all about.

"He was there at practice every day. He was hard-nosed. He was tough, but he also had a sense of humor and he played a lot to the kids' strengths. If he had a running team, he'd do more of that, if he had guys that could throw and catch, we'd tailor to that, but he was really good at looking at the talent that we had and pushing the team in that direction."

The result was a highly-competitive program that included six league championships and a section title as Chamberlain amassed a 164-167-3 record.

But Chamberlain's success as a coach wasn't measured only in wins and losses. The life skills he taught: toughness, competitiveness, being organized and paying attention to details are all traits he passed on to his players and coaches throughout the years.

"He was a competitor, and he never accepted mediocrity or going half-speed," said Showers, who joined Chamberlain's staff after a year at San Francisco State and graduating from CSUB when he was 23, and served with defensive coordinator Bill Satterfield as part of a three-man unit for 15 years. "The way he coached ... The effort that he put into coaching us made us self-directed into playing our (butts) off for him on Friday nights. He would have us ready to run through a wall on Fridays. The locker room would be silent (before a game). It was just like going to battle."

With Chamberlain's coaching career winding down, Showers took a position at Stockdale, where he had a seven-year stint as a football defensive coordinator and has spent the last 27 years as an assistant baseball coach for the Mustangs.

"He'd always say, 'don't be that guy that coaches a few years at a school, and when you have a bad season and the next year doesn't look good, say you're stepping down to spend more time with your family and then you go coach at a school that's loaded,'" Showers said. "He was an Arvin Bear through and through. He wasn't ever going to leave."

When Showers took a job at Stockdale, Mares replaced him on Chamberlain's staff as an assistant and eventually took over as head coach when his mentor retired in 2001. Twenty years later, Mares is still there, showing the same devotion and loyalty to the Arvin red and white as his mentor. Combined, Chamberlain and Mares have been the head coaches at Arvin the last 50 years.

"If you lived out here, you probably worked in the fields during that time, so I think we got our work ethic from there, but Coach knew how to draw from that," Mares said. "We weren't the biggest or the fastest, but we had a lot of heart and he got the most out of us back then."

For Mares, that meant trying to emulate his former coach, even as his relationship evolved from player to assistant and finally, friend.

"More than anything, he was my mentor," Mares said. "Anytime I had any doubts about the way the program was going, he'd always be there as a voice of reason, encouragement. And he always asked about the Bears. He'd see the score each week and text me on Saturdays. Sometimes I'd have him talk to the team, just to kind of hear his words. So for me, as a young coach especially, he was someone I will always be indebted to for that."

Although he had a reputation as being tough, his coaches and those who knew him best also saw the other side of his personality. An avid fisherman, Chamberlain loved to spend time with his ever-growing family, whether it be trips, on the river or golf course. He'd often poke fun of himself and his stories took on a life of their own.

"He was fun," Showers said. "His motto was, 'our staff might not win every game, but nobody's going to out-fun us.' We had so many good times together. We'd go to Vegas together, fishing trips to Bishop on opening day every year. He and Billy and I did everything together. As serious as he was about football, he liked to have a good time as much as anybody."

Hernan Santiago, who played fullback and linebacker for Chamberlain on the section championship team, remembers Chamberlain as one of the nicest people he's ever met.

"He was the nicest, sweetest guy," said Santiago, the 1990 co-BVarsity All-Area football player of the year. "He was intense and he was in control, but he was a good guy. He was someone you never wanted to disappoint."

Santiago also remembers Chamberlain's modesty and how he encouraged him to reach for his goals.

"He deflected all credit," said Santiago, who played at the University of Washington. "It was all about the kids and the community. He just wanted the best for the kids. He taught me to dream big. He pointed to a picture of another local kid playing tight end at UCLA, and said, 'this could be you.' I mean going to college wasn't even a thought before that. He was a father figure to so many and just a great role model for us."

Originally hired as head baseball coach and an assistant for football in 1964, Chamberlain also had success on the diamond, winning a league title and finishing as section runner-up in four seasons at the helm from 1966-1969. He also served as the frosh-soph baseball coach after that, with Satterfield as varsity head coach and Showers as his assistant. He also coached basketball and golf during his tenure at Arvin.

"It was great having Chuck as our frosh-soph coach, because all of our players were disciplined when we got them," said Showers, who first met Chamberlain when as a 6-year-old he took swimming lessons through the Red Cross, with his future coach and friend as his instructor. "He always kept 10 freshmen and 10 sophomores because he wanted to help build the program."

But the football field will be where Chamberlain is remembered most. He was inducted into the Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

"You had to be tough to play for him," Showers said. "...When we had double sessions, we went 6 to 8 in the morning and 3:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon in the heat. He was demanding and we worked our butts off."

That translated into some highly-competitive contests against larger, superior teams, with Arvin pulling off the upset. That was particularly true during a four-year stretch in the mid-80s when the Bears went 2-2 against perennially-powerful Bakersfield High coached by Pat Preston.

"No matter what the odds looked like, or chances to win, he made everybody think we were going to win that week," Showers said. "It didn't matter if we were playing BHS or whoever ... We shouldn't have beat them, but the kids believed, and he believed, and he got Billy and I to believe."

Part of Chamberlain's motivation also came from relishing the role as an underdog.

"On the day before game day he'd say, to get yourself ready for a game, think to yourself that you know you're going to have to fight (the class bully) after school. That's the mindset I want you to have when you take the field tomorrow night."

Although playing for Chamberlain was tough, Showers and many of those who played for him wouldn't have it any other way.

"In talking to some of my former teammates, (we agree)," Showers said. "We came in as boys as freshmen, and as seniors, we left as men."

In lieu of flowers the family asks that contributions be made to Bear Boosters, Arvin High School, 900 Varsity Road, Arvin, CA, 93203, or to Hoffmann Hospice, 4325 Buena Vista Road, Bakersfield, CA 93311.