Linda McCoy, a beloved schoolteacher and influential figure in the San Mateo softball community, died recently at her home in Discovery Bay. She was 70.
As the mother of former Aragon softball player and head coach Christie McCoy, Linda McCoy was one of the founders of the San Mateo Blitz travel team. She was also involved in creation of the softball rivalry “Big Game” between Hillsdale and Aragon, held annually at Chanteloup Field.
A native of Ukiah, Linda married Tim McCoy one year after meeting at their senior grad night. The two originally relocated to Daly City before moving to San Mateo. Linda McCoy’s foray into the San Mateo softball community was as a coach of Christie McCoy’s San Mateo Parks and Recreation, and Bobby Sox teams.
“Everybody just loved and embraced her as a coach,” Christie McCoy said. “She was super positive, filled you with confidence.”
A second-generation San Matean, Christie McCoy has long carried on her mother’s tradition of coaching. This year, her daughter Addison will start playing in the San Mateo Youth Softball Association for the 12U Eagles team. Christie McCoy has spent nearly 15 years giving clinics for the SMYSA and spent two stints as the head coach of the Aragon varsity softball team.
Christie McCoy said she has aspired to her mother’s coaching virtues. With a kind and gentle touch, Linda McCoy always brought a sense of humility to the diamond.
“That truly did come from my mom, and my dad as well,” Christie McCoy said. “But I think she was really the one that kept us grounded. It didn’t matter if we won or lost. … She’d always ask me in the car: ‘Did you have fun today?’ ‘Of course I had fun, I got to play softball.’ And she was like: ‘All right then.’”
Linda and Tim McCoy joined forces with other softball parents Marty and Cathy Lee, and Bob and Randi Reed, who, along with former Hillsdale coach Randy Metheany, created the San Mateo Blitz — now NorCal Blitz Softball — in the early 1990s.
Travel softball was on the verge of becoming a nationwide phenomenon but, at the time, there was only one new travel team in San Mateo County, the Peninsula Elite. The softball world was one of polyester shorts, farmer’s tans, and batting helmets, sans facemasks. Stockton and Lodi were becoming bastions for travel softball tournaments. So, after one year commuting to play on far-and-away teams with the Elite, Linda McCoy and company assembled their own dream team.
The name of that team nearly became the Mizuno Tsunami before they changed course and named it the San Mateo Blitz.
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“[They] took best players on the Peninsula and said: ‘Let’s make a team,’” Christie McCoy said.
The alliance of the McCoys and the Lees, along with Tom and Galynn Brady also made the “Big Game” possible. The move to playing off-campus night games was made in 1991, during Christie McCoy’s sophomore year at Aragon. As a pitcher, she shared a friendly but fierce rivalry with Hillsdale senior pitcher Maureen Brady. The two showcased that rivalry under the lights of Chanteloup Field.
“Little to know that a conversation my mom had with Mr. and Mrs. Brady, and Mr. and Mrs. Lee, this first game brought over 2,500 people over to Chanteloup,” Christie McCoy said.
By this time, Linda McCoy had stepped away from coaching. She moved on to being an avid and superstitious fan of high school sports, who wouldn’t arrive at Christie McCoy’s softball games until the second inning as to not bring bad luck.
Her fandom carried on to recent years, such as attending the baseball games of her grandson, Christie McCoy’s elder child, Evan, when she’d be one of the most vocal fans at the district All-Star games yelling Evan’s nickname, sometimes to an embarrassing degree: “I believe in you Milkman! I believe in you!”
“She put her heart and soul into everything she did,” Christie McCoy said. “Whether it was sports related, or as a teacher … she gave so much to this community.”
Born Feb. 21, 1962, Linda Ann McCoy-Reeder died unexpectedly Oct. 9. The cause of death is unknown.
She was predeceased by her husband Tim McCoy in 2006. She is survived in death by her husband Michael Reeder; children Christie, Jon and Melissa; grandchildren Ryan, Trevor, Evan, Addison, Peyton, Amelia and Aiden; and great-grandchildren Isla, Eisley and Odin.
A celebration of life will be held Nov. 20 at the new Burlingame Community Center at 1 p.m. All are welcome.
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