Marcos Breton: Grant High’s Alberghini at top of his game
Amid double-digit unemployment, government gridlock and an education crisis, there is a Sacramento man doing a better job at 63 than at 43.
This is a man who pushed through racial barriers to win the hearts of some who didn’t want him.
Along the way, he stumbled and succumbed to his anger more than once. He was cursed in moments of tension, and yet he hung in year after year.
Mike Alberghini has worked 40 years to be an overnight sensation.
The head football coach at Grant High School is arguably the most successful professional in any field in Sacramento.
On Friday night, his Pacers will be featured in a nationally televised game on ESPN2 against Folsom High School. Grant is ranked fourth in the nation in ESPN’s prep football poll.
On Wednesday, Cal-Hi Sports ranked Grant as the No. 1 prep football team in California. It’s been decades since a local school has been a consensus No. 1 over powers from Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
It’s a demonstration of the power that an individual can have on the lives of young people, on an institution (Grant High) and a community at large (Del Paso Heights).
But the wins on the field pale in comparison to the win that made it all possible.
In 1991, when the Grant coaching job was open, a band of vocal parents wanted an African American coach at the “minority” school.
The selection of Alberghini, who is white, angered some. It got ugly, but he remained on the sidelines.
How did everyone overcome?
In a movie, there might have been a redemptive scene of reconciliation with tears and Motown music.
In real life at Grant High, Alberghini gruff, red-faced, stout, stubborn, and sometimes profane just kept coming to work.
He cared about his players and showed it. He let them be themselves as long they followed the rules.
He established a rich pipeline of youth players, galvanized booster clubs and helped form a tight band of assistant coaches who are also critical to success at Grant.
The Pacers were state champions in 2008, defeating heavily favored Long Beach Poly in a stirring game. They returned to Sacramento in triumph, celebrated in a parade to City Hall.
This season, they return 18 starters from last year’s powerhouse team. Alberghini technically “retired” two years ago, giving up a job as athletic director and teacher at Grant.
He makes a modest stipend for working year-round to keep his players academically eligible to play and to be ready for the expectations of their biggest season yet. “I’m not enjoying any parts of my retirement, but I’m enjoying my life,” Alberghini said Tuesday.
It’s a life-affirming story for negative times.
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