To refer to Larry Bieber only as the longtime softball coach at Coeur d'Alene High would be grossly incomplete.

"Bieb," as he is known by many, spent some time in the military, briefly considered a career in law enforcement, was once a driver's ed teacher, likes to drive and work on classic cars, dabbles in music, and is a budding author.

"I've known him for 10 years and I learn something new about him every day," said Jenna DeLong, who played for Bieber from 2004-07, is an assistant coach for him this season, and the heir apparent to succeed him when he retires following the season. "It's not just boring stuff; it's super interesting. ... he blows my mind."

Bieber, the son of an Air Force lifer, bounced around the country before the family settled for good at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane. Bieber attended West Valley High and Eastern Washington State College, before serving in the Army as a military police lieutenant from 1969-72.

He started his teaching career in Washougal, Wash., in '72, taught one year at Lakeland Junior High and three years at Lakes Junior High before coming to Coeur d'Alene High in 1980.

Since 1974, he's been an assistant coach in football, basketball, baseball, track and softball.

For nine seasons (1994-2003), he was the Coeur d'Alene High boys basketball coach, guiding the Vikings to a state title in 1998.

In 1993 he became freshman softball coach at Coeur d'Alene, as the Vikings were making the transition from slowpitch to fastpitch. He became head coach in '94, guiding the Vikings to the last of their 13 straight state slowpitch titles before softball went fastpitch in Idaho in '95.

Bieber, 67, is in his 22nd season as head softball coach - the last 21 in fastpitch. In fastpitch, he has coached the Vikings to five state titles - most recently in 2012 - and seven state runner-up finishes. Months after the Vikings won state in basketball in '98, they won their first state fastpitch title, also under Bieber.

Counting this year's team, which is 23-1 entering the state 5A softball tournament at Post Falls High beginning Friday, Bieber is 461-151 in 21 fastpitch seasons, and 480-158 in 22 seasons overall as a head softball coach. The Vikings are at state for the 19th time in 21 fastpitch seasons.

Bieber retired from teaching at Coeur d'Alene High in 2003. He dabbled in real estate, and these days teaches part-time at NIC - a gig he says he'll probably keep.

DeLong said what she'll take most from him as a coach is, "definitely his love not just for softball, but his love for the people he surrounds himself with. It has nothing to do with Xs and Os ... the most important thing I'll take from him is his love and his positive attitude toward everything."

What did you know about fastpitch softball when you took over as head coach?

I played when I was in the Army. Over there in Germany, we played fastpitch softball because you couldn't really play baseball and softball was a little easier because of equipment. When I got out of the Army, I played (fastpitch) for Portland Community College. I was actually living in Washington, teaching at Washougal, but in the fastpitch league they were in, they could pick up two guys from Washington.

The hard part (of transitioning from slowpitch to fastpitch) was finding pitchers right away. Luckily, I got some kids that were willing to work at it. I'm not much of a pitching coach, but at least I could get them to make a good arm circle. Now, kids have got their own coaches.

What's the biggest change in the sport over the years?

It's the clubs and the summer situation.

The big change is really the club mentality. School ball, I used to get huge turnouts. Now kids cut themselves.

Kids now go to these tournaments where they're seen by these college coaches. College coaches used to call and ask me about players - they don't do that anymore.

How has the game itself changed?

It's faster. Athletes are better. They understand the game; they've been playing since they were 10. So my teaching is on how I want to do things. I tell them there's only two things you can control - your effort and your attitude. And I expect maximum effort, and I need to have that good attitude. And I've been dealing a little bit with the attitude stuff coming from summer ball.

I don't believe in telling the kids what their stats are. That's another change in the game. They're all conscious about their stats, so they can show somebody how good they are. And I'm all about team, and I'm not about stats. Who did the job to get the 'W?' And sometimes it's that kid that laid down that bunt when you needed it. Way more important than somebody else that's 4 for 5 and didn't contribute, and is only worried about their own (stats). They'll come into the dugout - "Aw, I'm 0 for 3" or whatever. I just want to ... I try to be really positive when they do something that contributes. And God bless 'em, they don't do it because they don't love the team and don't love winning. A lot of times they do it because, that's what they've been taught.

How often do you get asked it you are related to Justin Bieber?

All the time. "Are you his grandpa?" they'll ask me.

It's kind of a funny story because I didn't really know my dad's dad. My grandpa supposedly moved to Canada to get out of the states ... and Justin Bieber's from Canada.

I don't know (it's possible) ... But I'm pretty sure I'm not related to him. But I do get that asked all the time.

Do you have a favorite band or artist?

I used to play in a couple of bands. I played in a band when I was down in Washougal - a bunch of us schoolteachers got together, and I played guitar. We had a group called Patchwork, and we played local pizza joints ... classic rock, any kind of rock, Country-Western I enjoy too. Here in town, I used to play wooden music, which means we used acoustics, even though we played them through microphones. Now, I have an acoustic electric I can plug into my amp. ... We called ourselves Pocket Change.

Was there a group you tried to emulate?

I loved Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Rolling Stones, Bachman-Turner Overdrive ... the Eagles, that's my main one. And Jim Croce. And Gordon Lightfoot. Even John Denver. We would do some Chicago without the horns.

Did you sing, too?

No, when I sing it sounds like geese farts over the ocean. It's not pretty. I sing backup. I can harmonize.

I haven't played professionally for about 35 years. When we got married I was still singing, and Eileen (my wife, a retired schoolteacher) would bring her students over to the Bad Manor Pizza ... that's where Tomato Street is now. We got a gig there, 50 bucks each, and all the beer we could drink and all the pizza we could eat. In those days I could drink a lot of beer, and drink a lot of pizza.

I just love music. I have a guitar and amp in my office, and I'll just stop what I'm doing and just play. It relaxes me. All my grandkids, I make up songs about them, and they love it.

Do you still have a home phone?

Yes! Isn't that amazing? And she (Eileen) has still got a flip phone, and she doesn't text or anything like that. Everybody we know, we've lived in that same place for the last 37 years of our life, and everybody knows our landline. So they say you can change, and have your landline come in on your cell, and keep the number. But I don't know. We still have a landline.

What qualities about Jenna will make her a good successor as head coach?

She is a fierce competitor, but she also has a lot of compassion for the game. She doesn't understand why more girls just aren't jacked about this game. ... Plus, when she played for me, we had a special connection. One time (a local TV station) wanted to do a special on her. I said she can pretty much do it all - she can hit the ball, she can throw the ball and she can catch the ball, but one thing she can't do worth a heck is chew seeds.

So, the guy goes over and says, "I hear you can't chew seeds as good as he can," and oh, she went off on him - "Oh yes I can."

One time I was coaching, and she was in the dugout and I was having one of those days - I was sending kids when I shouldn't have, calling double steals when I shouldn't have ... and she said "Bieb, come here." So I walked over there. She said, "Hey, you're at about 75 percent right now. You better pick it up." And I said, "You know, you're right." And I started making better decisions.

Did you see the coach in her when she played for you?

We had a bunch of sophomores, when she was a senior, that were good players, but they thought they were good players. They had attitude. And she just took a hold of those kids, grabbed 'em by the facemask is what I like to say, and told them, "Look, this is the way we do it here." ... And we won that state championship, and those sophomores were contributing. The next year, when she's gone, oh, my God. ... I had a couple of tough years after that.

What are you looking forward to most in your retirement?

Being able to have that extra time. I've already started writing a couple of books, about softball, how things are now compared to how they were. ... I do a (scrap)book each season and give one to each kid, and I'm going to go back through those and chronicle all the stuff that's happened on this field.

I'm going to write music some more. I'm not going to write music to make money. I just want to put things down because people ask me questions all the time, and I like to be able to go back, research it and have it in my head what's going on.

Any coaches that have influenced you, or mentors?

Jud Heathcote. I was in his geometry class when I was at West Valley High School, and he was my basketball coach. And I was really short. I was 5-foot-4 and 98 pounds when I was a junior in high school - I got cut from the varsity basketball team. And he told me, "Bieb, you know, you've got a great jump shot, but you'd never get it off." I was really small. And I wasn't fast; some 5-4 guys are like a bug on water. I was a good player; I was smart ... me and this other kid he called the Dishman Mighty Mites because we could play, but we were so little. But I loved the way he coached; he taught defense like you wouldn't believe. So I said, if I ever got a basketball team, I'm going to make sure the defensive end of the game is taken care of. Because guess what kids do when they're not on your court? They're shooting. So when you're coaching, you better work on defense, because that's not what they practice anywhere else.

Funny story about Jud. When I was at Eastern, the first year I was on the JVs, and we played the WSU frosh, and guess who's the coach? Jud Heathcote. One of the things I learned from him is, you take away the baseline on defense. He had this superstar kid that was lazy on defense, so I gave him a little juke and went baseline and just layed it up. ... I think I only scored 7 points. After the game Jud came into our locker room and said, "Bieb, I told you you could play if you ever grew." At that time, I was 6 foot. I grew 7 inches between my junior and senior year. I went back to school and a lot of kids didn't even recognize me.

I never realized I'd be a fastpitch softball coach. I thought I'd be a basketball coach and a baseball coach. Because I loved baseball. I even got on the same team as Mike Moffat, on a semipro team in Spokane. ... I loved baseball, but I had to quit because it was time to make money and go to school.

How did you end up in the Army?

When I went to Eastern, and that's when Vietnam was going crazy, so I got into ROTC, so that when I graduated I got my commission. I finished as a distinguished military graduate, so I got to pick my place of duty, and I picked Europe, and reason I picked Europe was because it was a longer tour, and I probably wouldn't have to go to Vietnam.

I was a reserve officer, not regular Army.

When I was 2 1/2 years into it I put in for an early out so I could teach school, and could get out in time to get a job for the fall. Otherwise I would have been another four months into the school year. And they gave it to me. And two weeks after I had those orders, I got orders for Vietnam (but didn't have to go because he already had orders to go home).

Why join the military?

My dad was an Air Force lifer. I lived everywhere when I was a kid. I lived in Guam, Biloxi, Miss., Atlanta, Mountain Home, Sacramento two different times, Tucson. He moved every year because he was in strategic air command ... he flew in WWII, B-52 bombers over Germany. He said, get your education first (Larry's older brother, David, was drafted and was killed in training getting ready to go to Vietnam). My mom said I'm so glad you're going in as an officer.

You were the head basketball coach and head softball coach at the same time for nine seasons. Did it get to the point where it was too much to do both?

In 2003 when I decided to retire ... (principal) Steve Casey and (athletic director) Larry Schwenke called me in and said, "You know Bieb, you really can't be the head coach of two sports when you're not in the school. They said pick one and I said softball. And they said why? I said because there's way less pressure in softball than being the varsity coach in basketball. My wife would say, "Oh Larry, you should hear what they (the people in the stands) were talking about." She said "I have no idea what the game's about, but I knew that it wasn't good what they were saying about you."

One of your favorite sayings is, "you'll believe it when you see it" ...

I've got a million of em. I usually put them up here (in the back of the dugout). The kids look at em, sometimes they make sense, sometimes they dont. ...

What are some of your slogans?

"There's only two things you can control - your effort and your attitude" ... "Play hard, play with pride, play with poise" - that one would go at the top of my blackboard during basketball. "Winners don't wait for chances, they take them" - that's been kind of our battle cry, we've been very aggressive, and that's helped us. "Obstacles are those things you see when you take your eye off the target" ...

Did you ever consider staying in law enforcement?

When I first got out (of the Army), I had the Spokane Sheriff's Department after me, the Spokane city police wanted me, because I already had all that training. And I said no, you guys don't have a basketball team for me to coach. I want to get into education, and coach. I wanted to be that person that helped kids and through sports, develop them into good young people. Because that's the way I saw it happen for me.