Pat Fuscaldo, head basketball coach at Sonoma State University for the past 21 years, gave a very entertaining history of his early development with many stories of fun, intriguing and interesting encounters in his Italian-American community.
 
Pat Fuscaldo, head basketball coach at Sonoma State University for the past 21 years, gave a very entertaining history of his early development with many stories of fun, intriguing and interesting encounters in his Italian-American community. These stories displayed a very warm and human side of a highly successful basketball coach at Sonoma State. He has been named coach of the year for the California State Athletic Association and has a highly successful basketball program with a virtual 100% graduation rate from all of his players. The average GPA of players on his basketball team is 3.3.
 
Athletics at Sonoma State University is not on a scholarship program, each sport receives most of its income and support from outside sources. Despite working with a very limited budget, he is able to recruit and retain outstanding players. Through the years of working with him as their coach, they learn to become excellent students, caring and compassionate members of society, and play exciting basketball.
 
Throughout his presentation, he could not say enough about the good qualities of the students at Sonoma State. Their primary reason for being there is an education, sports are secondary. This is reflected in Pat’s philosophy about life in which he places responsibilities first with God, second with family, third with education and forth with sports. They all work together to create a rich and full life for his students. Priority must be maintained in order for that to be successful.
 
Pat is also quick to point out the successes of many of the other programs at Sonoma State University, including women's soccer, women's softball and baseball (one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history).
 
He was accompanied by Frank Scalercio, Assistant to the Vice President of Administration and Finance. Both Pat and Frank encouraged Club members to come to some games and capture the excitement and enthusiasm of the players and the students. The quality of the play is outstanding the sportsmanship is always great, it's close to home, and relatively inexpensive.
 
All of the members appreciated his openness and warm conversational nature of presenting the value of sports as part of an overall education.
 
Members who would like to receive complimentary admission to sporting events may contact Frank Scalercio at frank.scalercio@sonoma.edu .