Giving Back to Salesian Athletics: Home-Grown Coaches

Considering the size of the student population at Salesian College Preparatory (420 kids in grades 9 – 12), our school has enjoyed a tremendous amount of athletic success at the league, CIF North Coast Section, CIF NorCal Regional, and CIF State levels.  Salesian athletic teams and athletes have won over 100 league championships, and since 2001, Salesian has won 35 North Coast Section championships, 10 NorCal Regional championships, and 6 CIF State championships.

In my role as the Salesian athletic director, I am often asked how such a small school fields such competitive teams in so many different sports.  My answer to this question is that Salesian’s athletic success is a complex combination of several variables that include having great athletes, fantastic school support, tremendous parent involvement, and outstanding coaching.  Each of these factors brings a critical component to the process of molding the chemistry and physical talents of the student-athletes so that all contribute day in and day out to perform to the best of their abilities.  Then, by blending these variables together on the court or on the field or in the pool or on the course, our small school produces champions. 

I started teaching and coaching at Salesian in 1993, and when moved up to the position of athletic director in the 1997, I did not have a hiring formula that included choosing coaches that were graduates of our school.  But, over time, I have noticed a pattern in our hires that seems to see many coaching candidates emerge from our ever-growing alumni pool.  In fact, 72.7% (40/55) of our current coaches are Salesian graduates.  Although unintentional, when Salesian advertises for open coaching positions, I have found that many of the most interested and best candidates come from a group of people that have graduated from and played at Salesian College Preparatory.  In speaking with our alumni coaches, most say they returned to campus because they wanted to give back to the school and to the program(s) that helped shape who they are as adults. 

As the head coach of two varsity sports at Salesian, I can say unequivocally that having coaches that understand the rigors of being a Salesian student and being a Salesian athlete is invaluable to modeling and teaching what is wanted and expected from our kids.  I believe our alumni coaches relate well to our student-athletes because they have walked the exact same path our kids are walking.  I am grateful for the contribution that all our coaches make to the success of our athletic teams, and bringing back alumni to help coach only adds to the satisfaction of my job in overseeing our athletic programs.

Go Pride!

Chad Nightingale
Athletic Director
Salesian College Preparatory
 

Salesian Alumni Coaches

	Football	Boys’ Basketball	Girls’ Basketball	Softball
	Marcus Julian ’84	Quatrell Bolan ’00	Stephen Pezzola ’74	Lindsey Erickson ‘13
	Del Craft, Sr. ’95	David Jobe ‘01	Bernard Brown ‘78	Meghan Bradbury ‘15
	Thomas Floyd ’00	Kendrick Taylor ‘05	Izzy Ampon ‘14
	Michael Hernandez ’04	Justin Brown ‘08	Alana Horton ‘14	Track and Field
	Victor Minchillo ’10	Andre Clarke ‘10		Prentiss Reid ‘15
	Prentiss Reid ’15	Davion Mize ‘12	Baseball	Kameron Carr ‘15
	Vegas Shackelford ’15	Mario Dunn ‘13	Joe Ruiz ‘94
	Kameron Carr ’15	Dante Robinson ‘13	Nick Rampoldi ’95	Boys’ Soccer
	Jordan Cole ’15	Chris Scott ‘13	Eddie Wiederholt ’96	Raul Garcia ‘16
	Prentiss Reid ’15	Kristian Lastimosa ‘13	Kyle Brown ’15	Eugenio Coronel ‘17
	Zachary Fontanilla ‘16
	Swimming	Golf	Cross Country	Girls’ Volleyball
	Kari Young ’08	Marcus Julian ‘84	Andrew Ambion ‘10	Michaela Ahlenslager’15
	Girls’ Soccer
	Sergio Tostado ‘12