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Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com
February 11, 2011
Clayton Sports Former Eagle soars to 500th coaching victory JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
When Steve Coccimiglio was a 17-year-old senior at Clayton Valley High School in the fall of 1974 he coached a flag football team at Pine Hollow Middle School. Coccimiglio had been a two-year starting point guard for Bruce Iversen’s CVHS Eagles basketball team and was anticipating a stellar senior season to impress a college and win a scholarship. “I still remember the kids on that Pine Hollow team. The parents were great too. I just loved doing it,” he recalls today. Coccimiglio doesn’t have the same vivid memories of his senior year of basketball as he injured his posterior ligament in the second game of the season and his prep career came to an abrupt end. But as they say, “When one door closes another opens.” Two weeks ago Coccimiglio racked up his 500th coaching victory on the community college level as his Diablo Valley College Vikings made their basketball coach the 12th in state history to reach that lofty plateau. Coccimiglio briefly resumed his basketball playing career after Clayton Valley. He received a scholarship to Hawaii, Hilo and played two years there. “I wore a knee brace but never really recovered. I had lost all my quickness.” He stopped playing following his sophomore year and got into coaching while he continued towards his degree. He was the junior varsity basketball coach for two years at St. Joseph’s High School in Hilo. He then returned to the mainland and got a job at his alma mater. “In 1979-80 I was the freshman basketball coach and the following year coached JVs” working on Iversen’s staff. He had “a huge impact” on
Coccimiglio as a player and then a boss. “He taught me about class. I’m much more excitable and demonstrative than Coach but he taught me sportsmanship and respect which I try to remember as I coach.” After two years with the Eagles Coccimiglio applied for the varsity coaching job at De La Salle. In those days the Spartans were a second-tier team in the Catholic Athletic League. The Spartans athletic director at the time, Chuck Lafferty, smiles to this day when he says, “The year before I had hired a 24-year-old to coach our football team so I thought Steve at 24 could handle the basketball program.” During his five years at DLS Coccimiglio’s teams were 101-41. The young football coach hired the year before Coccimiglio? His name is Bob Ladouceur. When Coccimiglio was growing up in Concord he and his younger brother Ron would play basketball in the backyard. The older brother would pretend he was Rick Barry, star of the Golden State Warriors. At De La Salle Coccimiglio coached Barry’s oldest two sons Scooter and John, both of whom went on to NBA careers. His other two key players were Clayton-area boys Jason Ricks and Mike Vontoure. The latter is in the DLS Hall of Fame as one of the school’s greatest allaround athletes. The initial itch that Coccimiglio got for coaching actually came in middle school at Loma Vista. His PE teacher, Dave Martin, coached the school’s flag football, basketball and track teams. Coccimiglio idolized Martin. “I wanted to be like him. The guy was my role model.” After his run at De La Salle Coccimiglio, who had aspirations of coaching on the Division I coaching level, took a job at St. Mary’s College under
Photo courtesy of Diablo Valley College
DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE BASKETBALL COACH STEVE COCCIMIGLIO recently won his 500th game at the local community college becoming only the 12th coach in California to achieve that landmark. Coccimiglio played for and then coached on the staff of legendary Clayton Valley High School Hall of Fame basketball coach Bruce Iversen.
Lynn Nance. The first year he was a volunteer assistant. The next two years his pay came in the form of attending SMC tuition-free to get his Master’s Degree. Nance and the Gaels were so successful (first conference title in over a quarter century) he was hired to coach the University of Washington in the Pac 10. Nance asked Coccimiglio to come with him but could offer only a NCAA restricted salary position. “We had three kids and I didn’t see us living on $16,500 a year,” Coccimiglio recalls. So he remained with his teaching job at De La Salle, which he kept after going to SMC to coach, and became the assistant basketball coach at DVC. After a year he became the Vikings headman in the 1991-92 season. That first year his team won only six games while losing 25. In the 20 seasons since the least his Vikings have won is 17 games, averaging
24 wins a season. While he was starting his college career in those two first years at DVC he was also teaching at De La Salle and working for the Concord Leisure Services Department officiating basketball, umpiring softball and running officiating programs. “It was the most hectic time of my life. My wife Glenda held the family together as our three kids were into all kinds of activities by then.” Steve and Glenda were high school sweethearts at Clayton Valley and went to Hawaii Hilo together. “I guarantee you I never would have got my degree if she wasn’t there with me!” They’ve been married 31 years. In his second year at DVC Coccimiglio got hired on the faculty full-time teaching physical education. The dream of coaching Division I still remained. “I thought I’d be at DVC three or four years and then get back into a four-year
school.” He would talk about his job with other community college coaches. One in particular, Percy Carr of San Jose City College, told him, “The longer you stay at your school the harder it will be to leave. You’ll enjoy the lifestyle and you will begin to think about your pension.” Coccimiglio adds, “We had a great run of success in the 90s and that’s exactly what happened.” Carr must know of what he speaks since he’s been at SJCC since 1975 and leads all California community college coaches with 796 victories. Over his 21 seasons Coccimiglio has the highest winning percentage, .722, among the dozen coaches who have attained 500 victories. His team this year features the trademark defense he preaches. They are number one in the state in fewest points allowed per game. The coach adds, “We’re also 86th out of 93 community colleges in offense. We need to
grind out games.” During this season not only did the Vikings take their coach above the 500win mark but earlier in the year they notched his 494th victory, one more than Coach Iversen got. Coccimiglio says that the thing that makes community college coaching unique is that “you’re recruiting kids to come play for you and then when they’re done you’re helping them get recruited to a four-year school.” Coccimiglio estimates that 80-85% of the players who have gone through his program for two years have moved on to a four-year school to play basketball. The Vikings play in the Big 8 Conference, the only Bay Area team to do so. “DVC has a comprehensive men’s and women’s sports program and we like competing against schools with similar programs.” His brother Ron was inducted in the CVHS Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and big brother Steve made the presentation. Following Clayton Valley Ron went on to star for the Cal Bears football team and was voted to the UC Berkeley all-century football squad. In that same induction class was coach Iversen, “a classy guy” who passed away just months later in 2009. With all the dedication and interest the Coccimiglio’s have in sports it didn’t always rub off on Steve and Glenda’s two daughters and son. When daughter Jordan was a teenager she once shouted to her dad, “All you think about is sports. I will never marry someone like you!” She’s now married to Los Medanos College basketball coach, Derek Domenichelli, DVC’s nearest rival. Three days before Steve Coccimiglio, 53, got his 500th coaching win be got a fabulous present. His daughter Jordan had a baby boy, her second child and Glenda and Steve’s first grandson.
Three Clayton Valley teams seek home games for NCS playoffs JAY BEDECARRÉ Clayton Pioneer
Photo by Mike Dunn
SENIOR CENTER AND TRI-CAPTAIN SARAH NELSON (34) out jumps Greer Kleber (00) during the Eagles’ 75-60 win over Northgate last month as they ended the Bronco’s 28-game league winning streak. The teams have a rematch Friday night at 7 o’clock in Walnut Creek. Gina Del Bene (21) leads the Eagles in steals while junior Molly Kommer (5) is their top rebounder. Clayton Valley is seeking its first home game in the NCS playoffs since before the turn of the century.
The goal of each high school sports team or athlete is to reach post-season play. For team sports, that’s the North Coast Section playoffs. For three Clayton Valley High School winter sports teams, their expectations are a step higher – they want to host NCS playoff games at the Alberta Way campus. In order to do this, they have to finish off Diablo Valley Athletic League play with a strong record to receive a high seed for the playoffs. Last year, the boys and girls soccer teams hosted an unprecedented NCS doubleheader in Gonsalves Stadium but ended up losing both
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games. This year, coaches Rory Gentry and Scott Booth hope to be in the same position on their home field sidelines but come away with better results. For the Eagles girls basketball team, hosting a home playoff game would be an experience they haven’t had since before the turn of the millennium. Through last week’s DVAL play, the Eagles soccer teams had yet to lose a game in the league, a feat they nearly accomplished through the full 2009-’10 DVAL season – when they lost one of 24 combined games. Booth’s girls team won its first 10 games and finished off DVAL schedule this week against Ygnacio Valley and Northgate.
“Our goal is to finish strong in league play and get a high seeding for NCS. The girls are all working really hard toward that goal and playing well together,” Booth says. For the boys team, sophomore forward Elisama Padilla has already established a school single-season record with 21 goals, including 14 in league play which tied the school mark. He also has set a new record for hat-tricks with four. The Eagles are in first place with eight wins and a draw in their first nine games. Ygnacio Valley is second to the Eagles and they meet in the season’s final DVAL game. The NCS soccer seeding meeting is this Sunday, with playoffs beginning Wednesday.
Coach Bernard Barnes’ girls basketballers meet Northgate Friday night in Walnut Creek, hoping to duplicate their earlier 75-60 home victory over the Broncos that ended a 28-game league winning streak. CVHS figures to be 10-0 in league entering the Northgate game and then finish up next Tuesday against Berean Christian, also in Walnut Creek. The Eagles are ranked 12th in the Bay Area and second in the North Coast standings for Division 2. They will learn their NCS seeding and playoff schedule on Feb. 20. Playoffs begin Feb. 22 or 23. Unlike in soccer, basketball doesn’t end with the NCS, as there are Northern California and then state championship playoffs.