Rick Buonarigo: Putting the pieces together

Tony Altobelli

Congratulations, you’re the new head coach for the Orange Coast

College softball team. There’s only one problem: there’s no team.

“They told me there was going to be no program my first year, but I was

determined not to let that happen,” Buonarigo said, referring to the 1998

squad. “With most of the local players already taken and set to play

elsewhere, it took a lot of work to get enough players to field a team.”

That was just under three years ago and now Buonarigo has the Pirates

going in the right direction.

“It was a three-year goal of my to get this team back to a competitive

level and I think we’re at that level,” Buonarigo said. “From there, we

just want to continue to improve and get the program back to where it was

in the early ‘90s.”

From 1990-95, the Pirates won two Orange Empire Conference championships

and were runners-up three times.

Buonarigo remembers those early ‘90s teams well. He was the varsity

softball coach at Costa Mesa High from 1990-95. He guided the Mustangs to

CIF Southern Section playoff appearances in 1993, ’94 and ‘95, the only

playoff appearances in Mesa’s history.

“I used to take my teams across the street to OCC to watch Nick Trani’s

teams play,” Buonarigo said. “I always thought it would be great someday

to be able to coach at OCC and now I am fortunate enough to do so.”

An Inglewood native, the Buonarigo family moved to the San Francisco

suburb of Foster City, where he played football and baseball.

After high school, Buonarigo moved back to Southern California where he

attended Saddleback and OCC before graduating from Vanguard University.

Perhaps it was a higher source of inspiration that persuaded Buonarigo to

start coaching. “When I was 19, there was talk of starting up a church

league and I got into that,” he said. “From there, I spent a year

coaching all different sports at Davis Junior High before becoming the

junior varsity coach at Mesa for five years.”

After five years of JV and five years of varsity, Buonarigo hooked up

with OCC and he couldn’t be happier.

“Coaching at this level has a lot more freedom to do more things,”

Buonarigo said. “It’s also a challenge because at the high school level,

you can mold and teach the player for four years, but at this level you

have them for one, maybe two years. It’s tough, but it’s the kind of

challenge I like.”

This year, Buonarigo spent extra hours on the prowl for the kind of

players who would lead OCC back to some level of respect.

“I really wanted to make sure we had nine players on that field that had

a good chunk of experience,” Buonarigo said. “I feel like we did that and

after this year is over, it all starts again.”

Buonarigo tries to instill an even-keeled attitude for his Pirates’

squad. “I try to teach them to stay level-headed whether we win or lose,”

Buonarigo said. “I consider myself to be a very fair coach. I expect a

lot from my players. I want them to perform well on the field and to work

hard at every practice.”

With softball being a game of execution and pitching, Buonarigo is a firm

believer that speed kills. “I’m a pretty aggressive coach,” he said. “I

love to hit and run, bunt and run, all sorts of little plays to keep the

runners moving.”

Buonarigo, his wife, Sandy and their two-year-old daughter, Carley,

reside in Tustin.