Derry Eads had a record career as the high school sports editor for the Ventura County Star.
Maintaining records, that is.
Inheriting county prep records for various sports created by retired high school sports editor Jim Parker, Eads has updated single game, season and career performance lists for 25 years, including statistics for more than 12 years since retiring in 2011.
Eads’ assignments included weekly columns. notebooks, game coverage, high school and college schedules and statistical leaders during various sports seasons.
He has covered more than a dozen state cross country and track and field championships as well as section finals in football, softball and soccer.
The CIF-Southern Section presented Eads with a Victory with Honor media award.
His contributions to the Star did not end with his final fulltime employment.
After retiring, Eads was a commentator for the paper’s streaming of online high school football games for three years. He regularly contributed to coverage of various sports events throughout the year.
Eads has been the secretary of the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame executive committee since 2012.
Before arriving in Ventura County, he was a sports writer for the El Paso Herald-Post. For the Herald-Post, Eads primarily covered UTEP sports. He also wrote weekly golf and bowling columns and wrote about the Sun Bowl, tennis and swimming.
Among his honors were an 1985 Headliner Award of Texas and special award from the Texas Women’s Bowling Association.
He was elected to the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame and the El Paso Bowling Hall of Fame.
Eads, his wife Yvonne and stepdaughter Sarah live in Port Hueneme.