Ask any student athlete who they admire the most and many will say the same thing: my coach.
Vaquero teams are now in the unique position of having two generations of coaches with a family name well-known to Glendale.
Chris Cicuto, 23, has spent his whole life surrounded by sports. Chris’ father, John Cicuto, has been the head coach of the Glendale College football team for the past 15 years.
John is one of the most respected football coaches in the California Community College system and his experience was hardly wasted on son Chris, who has taken on the helm of Vaquero baseball from Bob Myers.
“I grew up with GCC athletics with my dad being the head coach of the football team.” Chris said. “I was a ball boy from the age of 4 to about 13.”
John was extremely busy as the football coach but what made a lasting affect on Chris was that he would always make it to his baseball games.
“The coolest thing is he would structure his spring training so he would drive an hour and a half to make it to my games at UC Riverside,” Chris recalled. “He would be there at 5 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game watchingbatting practice.”
Chris spent his high school years at Agoura High School playing football and baseball. He said his passion was baseball and his father supported him all the way.
“My dad never pushed football on me,” Chris said. “I played in high school, but my passion was always baseball.”
After graduating from high school, Chris moved onto Ventura College, where he played for two years. He then transferred to UC Riverside and graduated in the summer of 2000.
He was offered a job as the Vaquero hitting and positions coach and had a vital role in the 2002 season.
“It was a great year for us,” Chris said. “We had really dominant hitting and we had a fourth-round pick.” Working hard with the students reminds him of his original aspirations of becoming a teacher of older kids.
“If I wasn’ t coaching, I think I would be a teacher,” Chris said. “I wanted to teach high school.”
His mind changed when he saw football players return after success and visit his dad.
“I would always read letters previous players sent my dad thanking him and everything and that affected me and made me want to coach.” Chris said.
Sports is a big deal in the Cicuto family but what is most important is getting an education. His mother enforced education with a coach’ s mentality.
“My mom told me to get a master’s,” Chris recalled. “I went and got my master’s and I don’ t think I would have this job without it.”
“Baseball and this program are pretty much my life right now.” Chris said. “It’ s really important to this staff that all our players transfer or get drafted.”
During the first week of school, Chris, was busy having tryouts for the upcoming season . He sees himself as a player’s coach and players even call him “coach C”.
“I talked to the other players and they say he’ s a good coach,” said Scott Smith, a freshmen trying out for the team. “He’ s a little strict, but you can talk to him as a friend.”
Some of the players fall too in love with the coach and the clubhouse. “I think they spend more time here than they should,” Chris said. “They should be in the library instead.”
Chris is extremely excited for the upcoming season and has high aspirations for the team.
Chris said. “I’ m expecting a lot out of the players this season, winning the conference championship is the goal.”
The man to lead the Vaqueros this year is definitely the player’ s coach: Coach C.