Tuesday Time Machine -- Remembering Coach Alto

We are coming up to the nine-month "anniversary" since the world lost Orange Coast College head baseball coach, John Altobelli, his wife, Keri and daughter Alyssa and for many who knew Coach Alto, the pain is still fresh and the hurt lingers.

I've spent most of this semester thinking about this particular column and wondering what's the best way to remember someone who has been such a powerful influence to so many people? Then the answer became as clear as a bell … have some of those people share their stories.

So I did my best to try and get people from various parts of Alto's life and have them share their memories and hopefully, those pieces of the puzzle will give you a clearer understanding to what Alto meant to everyone who knew him.

So, without further delay, here we go!

MICHAEL RHYLICK, OCC SOPHOMORE PITCHER – Alto, to me, was more than a baseball coach. He was hands down the best coach I have ever played for. I knew coming into OCC as a freshman that Alto was considered the G.O.A.T for junior college baseball.

But, what I didn't know was how much different he was than all the other coaches I have played for.

One of the biggest things that stood out to me about Alto was all the bigger-than-baseball moments and how he went about those. What I mean by that is Alto did not just love coaching us … he loved us as family. Our struggles were suddenly HIS struggles and he did anything and everything for each and every one of us.

He always put others in front of himself and preached about family and the importance of it. Family was not just the ones we go home to and spend holidays with. Family is everyone who is or was a part of OCC baseball and let me tell you it really DOES feel like a family.

Alto was a second Dad to me. Whether it was on-the-field trouble or off-the-field trouble, he was there for you and I know for a fact he would take a bullet for each and every one of us. NEGU (Never Ever Give Up from the Jessica Rees Foundation) was a big part of our program and Alto made sure we helped out in any way possible. Whether it was making "Joy Jars" for the kids with cancer or just helping clean the factory, we were there as a team making a difference.

There is no one that was like Alto. Words cannot describe Alto; he truly was one of a kind. There was no one that our team would rather go to war with and win with than Alto. One of his favorite quotes was "Make today is the most important day of year" He said this every day after we met as a team before we stretched because tomorrow is not guaranteed. He preached that almost every day. That is something I will never forget because he said that to us the last day we saw him and I am speechless every time I think of that.

Going back to the 2019 season and our remarkable championship run, there were so many memories I was able to make with Alto. One of the memories was the Kobe text. We were in the last couple weeks of conference and we needed to win and before Game 2 at Riverside, Alto brought us together and showed us a text from Kobe. After that we had a new motto which was "F'em" and we carried that throughout the rest of our championship series. I will never forget all the "mountains are blue" sayings after winning every series or jumping up and down with Alto after we just won state as one big family.

Alto is still with us every day and every time we are on the field we can feel his presence and know he is always watching. Alto will never be forgotten, and his legacy will live on forever. JA14

JEFF PIASKOWSKI SR., FORMER OCC ASSISTANT COACH AND LIFELONG FRIEND -- Family always comes first when I think of Alto. I have known him for years … he was 11 when we first crossed paths. Of course, it was baseball where we met.

It was Newport Harbor baseball and his brother, Bo, was my coach. Alto played with my brother Jerry Piaskowski.  I was always there watching him play. That's where I first met the Altobelli family. Pat, Jim, Toad (Tony), and that continued with my family being a part of the Altobelli family. My son, Jeff Piaskowski Jr., played for Alto. When Jeff finished up his baseball career, he joined the staff at Coast. The three of us were able to coach together for a few years. My family has been involved with the Coast Baseball Family and the Altobelli family for a few generations. Brooklyn, my granddaughter, learned early.

What I miss about Alto …

The great parties at his house for state championships, Super Bowl or just a movie night.

The coach's meetings … it didn't matter if it was at a local spot or in Vegas.

Most of all, just seeing him every day.

Coaches Vegas Trip … all the young coaches wanted to go out to the clubs do some partying and see who they could see. Alto and I said we were going to try to go see Billy Joel. That was so funny to the younger coaches. So, we went different directions that night. A few hours later, were getting calls from the young guys that they needed collared shirts to get into the clubs and could they use the ones we had brought. We said, "Sure have a good time." So Alto and I were walking around the MGM where Billy Joel was playing and the next thing you know, this guy walks up to us and asks if we need tickets to the show. "Yes we do," Alto said and the guy said, "Here we have two extra … you can have them."

Alto and I went back to the room and waited up for the young guys. They showed up and it was not a good sight. They never got into one club, lost money, and had a little too much fun. They asked us what we did and we told them, "Billy Joel show … and it was free!"

We all went to sleep and Alto and I got up early to walk and get breakfast and none of the young guys wanted to go. So, the two old guys went for a walk and breakfast. And guess who we run into … Pete Rose … Alto's favorite player! Alto and Pete get a picture together and it was in Alto's office for years. We talked to Pete for a little while and Pete's is telling us stories. And Alto tells him the reason why he wears No. 14, was for him. Alto told him, "No one played the game like you Pete and I respect that. I want my players to play that way. Pete said, You can't find many like that anymore." Alto said, "You can't teach it either!"

When it came to the games, I would always try to get to get to the first-base end of the Pirate dugout when we were on offence. That's where Alto would be checking out the game situations and controlling the offensive part of the game. It was just amazing to be right there in the mix with him. Looking at the signs he was flashing and talking about "what if's" and he would be three or four plays ahead of the game. One game he asked me "what do you think about bunt right here?" I would say "Let's get it done." He then said, "No not yet … this guy is going to bury the next pitch in the dirt. He did and the runner moved up to second on his own! Now we are in a situation to drive in a run instead of bunt. This happened so many times and under so many different situations.

Uncountable times someone would do something to disrespect someone or the game. And Alto would just say, "The Game Knows." Players learned that was Alto's way to put you in check and think about what you're doing. If they didn't figure it out and it turned on the player, he would just say, "I told you  … The Game Knows!

The man was a great father, husband, mentor and coach. But most of all,  he is still one of my best friends.  #Foreverapirate

BURT VILLAREAL, FORMER GOLDEN WEST COLLEGE HEAD COACH AND FORMER RUSTLER TEAMMATE OF ALTO'S -- John and I met in the summer of 1981 playing summer ball for the Senik Rustlers. We had a very good team and we won the Metro League Championship. By doing so, we earned the right to play the remainder of the league's All-Star Team at Anaheim Stadium following an Angel Game on a Sunday afternoon. The reason for this intro is a funny story about John. You see John was playing right field that day and during the Angel game, Reggie Jackson had hit a couple of home runs for the Angels and Reggie was playing right field also. After the first inning of our game, John came jogging off the field from right field and all you could hear was jingling noises. Me and a couple of teammates looked at John and he had a huge grin on his face. You see, the fans had been showering Reggie in right field with loose change for his performance that day. Well John had over $20 in change in his pockets and could

barely keep his pants up! Our dugout was in hysterics listening to him jog off the field the rest of the day.

That team went on to win the SoCal Conference title the following year with a 30-6 record. That is where

I got to know John and what kind of person he was.

Alto worked hard and expected others to also and he had a great knowledge of the game. Once we became coaches, the friendship grew stronger and I am so glad that I got to share time with him as adults competing both on and off the field. The Friday before he passed, he was at our game scouting and he and I talked for 20 minutes or so about me retiring and how jealous he was. Although we didn't really hang out together, we were very close I felt. I miss him dearly.

I remember the year he could not coach in the State Finals and he and I would text throughout the games. Then there was the time he blew out his hamstring running

in from the right field corner when a fight broke out after our game. He went down like he was shot in the leg and his chair went flying. We were watching from right field because we had both been tossed from the game earlier that day.

John was a loving father first, a good friend second and a hell of a coach third!

EFREN GALVAN – DIRECTOR OF ENROLLMENT SERVICES AT ORANGE COAST COLLEGE -- I came to OCC in March of 2008 as the new Director of Admissions & Records.  I was an "outsider" from a small CSU in the Central Valley.  New to Orange County, new to Costa Mesa, and new to OCC.  Some of the few things I knew about OCC was its reputation for academic excellence and its proven success in collegiate athletics. One of my goals was to introduce myself and connect with the coaches at OCC and let them know that they had an ally in the Admissions and Records Office. I was there to help them and their student athletes succeed. I remember the first time I met Alto. I walked out to the practice field in the late afternoon and was able to introduce myself. I called him "Coach John" (big mistake). He looked at me and said, "nice to meet you, I'll let you know if we need anything." That was it, short and to the point.  Then I waited and waited and waited some more. About six weeks passed by and a student came to my office and said, "Coach sent me to see if you could help me with something". I was able to help him the next day and Coach came by to say, "Thank you for your help," and our meeting ended with "you can call me Alto." Slowly but surely, we began to build our connection as colleagues and as friends. Each year, I was able to build stronger connections with the coaches and the players on the baseball team. I met many of them on their recruitment visit to the campus as Coach Alto started to bring them by my office to meet with me, the Director of Admissions at OCC, while they were touring the college. I was starting to feel like a member of the Pirate baseball program! 

It was the first day of the term in the fall semester of 2013.  Cody Bruder, Cody Nulph, Chris Iriart, Jake & David Hill, Justin and David Broussard, were all part of the returning skilled and experienced sophomore class.  Tommy Bell, Cole Rutherford, Robert Longtree, Dominic Purpura, & Jack Pabich, were some of the talented freshman that would learn how to play baseball the "Pirate" way. They were all sitting in a room together, many of them meeting each other for the first time. This team was "loaded" and the expectations were sky high. Coach Alto took control of the room, grabbed a dry erase pen and wrote one word on the board, "FRESNO". Fresno, CA was the site of the 2014 State Baseball Championships scheduled in May of 2014 and he wanted to let this group of young men know the team goals. Win the conference title, win the southern regionals, win the Super Regionals and get to Fresno to "Win" a State Championship.
Alto asked if I wanted to say a few words to the team, and I did.  I felt like I was going to be a part of something very special with that group of coaches and that group of young men. - Side note, this was current Head Coach Nate Johnson's first year as an Assistant Coach for Pirate baseball and he was about to witness great coaching firsthand! -  The season started as expected as the Pirates won 12 of their first 15 games and we could see how deep and talented this team was. Alto is a big Chicago Cubs fan, and if you know the Cubs and the tradition of this franchise, you know that after a Cubs win they fly the "W" flag above the center field scoreboard.  Alto and the Pirates had adopted this tradition at his brother Tony's suggestion in 2009 and this year's "W" flag was flying high and often! 

I don't think that I missed any home games that year and I was watching coaching greatness as Alto led this team to victory after victory.  The Pirates had met three of the four team goals it had set out to complete and next up were the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) 2014 State Championships in Fresno, CA.  The Pirates had won 12-straight games and were the #1 seed from the South heading into the state tournament.  The Pirates beat College of the Sequoias in Game 1, beat San Joaquin Delta in Game 2 and headed into the "Championship Finals" against San Joaquin Delta on Monday, May 26th.  The Pirates won Game 3 captured the CCCAA 2014 State Baseball Championship!  The Pirates finished with an overall record of 36-9 and were also named "National Champions" by the publication, Perfect Game. They had won a state title just five years previous in 2009 and I could clearly see how great this program was.

After a few days, Alto hosted a gathering at his house so that the players could get sized for their state championship rings and I was invited to attend. We had food and beverages and I was asking everyone to sign the state championship team picture and bat that I was going to hang proudly in my office. I had built a relationship with all the coaches and players on this team and I was sad to see it end. 

After a few announcements about ring designs, scholarship offers to several players and other things, Alto had one more announcement to make. He said that he had spoken with the team and that he wanted to announce who would get to keep this year's "W" flag. He started by talking about teamwork, success, dedication, our bonds and what it means to be a "Pirate". He knew how to capture a room with words, and we were hanging on to every one of them. He then said that it was unanimous that this year's "W" flag would be given to "Efren!" I couldn't believe he said my name, but everyone was looking at me and cheering me on, so I knew it wasn't my imagination. I was floored and, if you know me, I'm typically not at a loss for words. But in that moment, I actually was! 

This was a huge honor and I know that Alto didn't make decisions like this easily or take them lightly.  I was now officially a "Pirate" and part of the OCC family. That "W" flag is proudly hanging in my office along with the "W" flag for 2015 as the Pirates repeated as State Champions!  There are four State Championship Flags for Pirate baseball, I am lucky enough to have two of them hanging in my office along with the signed team pictures and signed team bats as a sort of "shrine" for Pirate baseball. 

Former players still tell me that if OCC was a 4-year college/university, they would "never have left OCC."  Many others say that "Alto was the best coach I ever played for." Alto made a lifelong impression on these young men as he did on me. I'm glad that I was able to say, "Thank you" for allowing me to be a part of the "Pirate family."

 I miss you Alto. My colleague, my friend … "Forever Pirates"

TONY ALTOBELLI, SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR AND ALTO'S LITTLE BROTHER – First off … THANK YOU to these four individuals for taking the time to share their stories and once again, thank you to everyone out there for their love and support throughout 2020.

The day after John died, I put together a "thank you letter' to my brother and I named it "Dear John … Thank You … Love Toad". Of the many stories I threw together in that article, the one question I got a lot was "How did John end up with his leg through the garage door?"

Glad you asked!

So to put you in the picture … I'm around 15 years old and for the first 15 years of my life, John has kicked my butt in just about everything involving sports. He was eight years older than me, so he definitely had a decided advantage, but as the eager younger brother, I was always trying to find ways to top him in SOMETHING!

Well, we had a basketball hoop atop our roof that was higher than regulation by a good 5-6 inches and he and I would go to war for hours on the court, either playing one-on-one, or "21" or the always-popular game, "HORSE".

After the bazillionth loss in a row to the favorite child, I made it my life's work to find a shot he couldn't make and if/when I ever got him to his final letter, I'd spring that shot on him and relish the sweetest victory I'm sure I'd ever experience in my lifetime.

So … it finally happened … I had him at "H-O-R-S" and he was down to his final letter so I unleashed the greatest shot in the history of HORSE.

What he had to do was … get a running start … jump off one of the ridges that stuck out of our aluminum garage door, push off that ledge to go higher and SLAM DUNK the basketball into the 10-foot-6 rim! The look on my face when I pulled that shot off was only topped by the look of astonishment from John that I actually did it! I floated back down from Earth like I had down that dunk a million times, but inside, I was grinning like an idiot … I got him and HE knew it!

Ever the competitor, he spent the next couple of minutes practicing his footwork so he could figure out which foot to jump off the ground and which foot to push off from the garage. Geometry was never his strongest subject so I was feeling pretty confident as he was trying to figure this shot out.

The look on his face was, "I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but Toad can't beat me," so he took off like a rocket towards the garage door.

Well unfortunately for him, his forward momentum was too much and instead of jumping parallel to the door, he basically slammed into the garage door and that door – abused for decades by countless basketball air-balls and thousands of Whiffleball fastballs – gave in to John's "Cobra-Kai" karate kick.

To know John … he was one of the smoothest and most fluid athletes you'd ever see in any sport he competed in. Everything he attempted in sports looked like a million bucks … except for this one moment … the moment when foot met garage door at 50 mph.

Then suddenly … foot went THROUGH garage door and there was John – the greatest athlete of my youth and lifetime hero of mine – standing on one leg with his other leg sticking halfway through this aged and defeated garage door.

For about five seconds, we both said nothing. I was absolutely stunned at what happened and I'm sure John was doing a quick inventory on his body parts to make sure nothing serious had happened. He managed to bleed pretty good and it was running down off his leg and onto the driveway.

I looked at him like he had seven heads and said, "Are you OK?" and he looked at me … and just started laughing. Which of course, made ME start laughing.

Then we laughed louder … and louder. (For those that remember John's laugh … it was a million-dollar laugh).

We howled and laughed to the point where tears were streaming down both of our faces as he continued to stand there like an idiot with his leg through the garage door!

If this was present day, I would've snapped a photo and had it up on every social media outlet before he could get his leg out of the hole. But, instead, all I have is that memory.

Mom came out shortly thereafter because of our laughs, but by the time she made it out, John was out of the hole and was just standing there … bleeding. She later told me she was mad at me – not because the golden child got hurt, nor because of the damage to the garage or the bloody driveway. She was mad that I didn't yell for her to come out so she could see John standing there with his leg in the garage like an idiot too!

I helped him back out of the hole without causing more damage to his leg and as he got nonstop treatment from Mom because, he WAS the favorite,  we argued for the rest of the day about the outcome. I counted that as "E" and he lost … FINALLY!!

Ever the pain-in-the-ass older brother, John did not concede victory to be because he said he never took the shot. So once the garage door was replaced, I gave him the opportunity to try again … much like the George Brett "Pine Tar" game, this epic battle of HORSE was finished months later … and of course … he lost! The new garage door was made of wood and he again, slammed INTO the door instead of jumping UP. I guess he wasn't perfect in everything after all!

John and I definitely had a fantastic connection as we grew up together. Life and adulthood might have dimmed that bright light between us, but we always had a connection. All three of us brothers have/had it. The three boys grew up eight years apart … and yet, at the same time … we all shared the same goofy, competitive, adolescent brain and spirit that connected us together. He is sorely missed throughout my family, the OCC Family and throughout all of California baseball. Love you, brother.

 Thanks for letting me share these stories with you. Remember to hug your loved ones every day … tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us.