By Colleen Martin
Editor’s Note: Bytheal Ratliff was passionate about giving kids opportunities to play sports. His own athletic career at Cabrillo was cut short by kidney disease; a kidney transplant from his sister saved his life. At Shoreline Middle School, which has an enrollment of 450, he was a giant in terms of influencing kids’ lives. After his death at age 49, parents are raising money to install a new wood floor in 2022 and rename the gym in his memory. Principal Colleen Martin explains his impact:
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Bytheal Ratliff worked for the Live Oak School District for about 18 years. He was hired as a campus supervisor at Shoreline Middle School and quickly started coaching after-school sports for the middle school: Boys’ basketball and girls’ softball. He became our athletic director and was passionate about making sure that we had new equipment and uniforms that our students could wear with pride.
Shoreline Middle School parents are raising money to redo the floor at the 24-year-old gym and rename it in memory of Bytheal Ratliff, a beloved coach who worked for the school district for 18 years.
Bytheal was a fixture on campus. He stayed every weeknight for our evening games, usually handling the scorebook and the clock for basketball and volleyball for all 3 teams. He spent the rest of his evenings and weekends coaching football at Santa Cruz High School, baseball at Live Oak Little League and softball with Cabrillo Crushers.
Bytheal wanted every student to learn how to be on a team, so he was always willing to add another team and coach it himself, in order to give the kids in our community an opportunity to play, even if they didn’t make the A team.
He was known around the Cabrillo Gals League for the C teams in travel ball, spending his summer teaching girls how to improve their softball game and have fun with the teammates. These were volunteer coaching positions, when he didn’t even have a daughter on the team.
Bytheal established relationships with all students on campus and dramatically changed the culture at our school. He earned the trust of the students, so they would share information knowing he would never give up his source.
He made sure that no child ever went hungry.
I often observed him handing $2 to kids who didn’t have money and weren’t able to get free lunch from the school. He was very passionate about kids having access to food.
Bytheal had gone to culinary school and then shifted his focus to working with kids when he was hired by Live Oak School District.
His position grew from a 5-hour campus supervisor, to an 8-hour campus supervisor/district security. He was trusted with keys to the entire campus and he checked up on each campus, every day, 7 days a week.
Everyone in the neighborhood knew him and respected him when he told skateboarders to leave campus, dog walkers to go to a park, or teachers to go home and not work so late.
Bytheal never went home until everyone was home for the evening.
Even though it was the job of each night custodian at our 5 sites to alarm the buildings in the evenings, Bytheal kept driving to each campus to check on staff who were still working.
When he suddenly passed away on June 1, 2017, we were a community struck by grief.
He was a friend to everyone. Every school in our sports league had stories to tell about how Bytheal had helped their coaches, players and athletic directors. Every employee and student in our district had a special relationship with him.
Our district realized that we had to hire about 4 people to replace him, he did so many jobs, and never asked for anything.
We used to tease him because he was always talking on his phone.
Parents from other schools would call and ask for details about game times and locations (even when they weren’t playing against Shoreline). Everyone knew that Bytheal had the answer.
He played football, basketball and baseball at Santa Cruz High School and went on to play football at Cabrillo College. That was the extent of his collegiate career. His friends described him as not the best player on the team, but the guy with the biggest heart.
How to Help
On Dec. 12, Bytheal’s birthday, parent volunteers at Shoreline Middle School launched a fundraising campaign, to upgrade Shoreline’s gym with a new wood floor in his memory.
The goal is to complete fundraising by June 1, the fifth anniversary of his death, so installation can take place over the summer, and then rename the gym in his honor, commemorating his legacy in Santa Cruz County youth sports.
The campaign includes a matching donations up to $7,500, grant-writing, and a fundraiser with the Santa Cruz Warriors at 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 17, at the Kaiser Arena in Santa Cruz. Details: https://sites.google.com/losd.ca/shorelines-gym-floor