Del Paso Heights bids farewell to late, great Mike Alberghini — Coach Al — in moving event
About midway through the celebration of life of a man defined more than his Sacramento-area record 282 victories as a football coach, as a light rain started to drop in Del Paso Heights on Saturday afternoon, someone in the stands shouted out a bit of truth that no one would argue.
“Legends never die!”
Mike Alberghini is by any measure a legend, a football coach extraordinaire and a champion for kids of all walks in his 50 years of teaching and coaching at Grant High School. He was a legend in a rumpled T-shirt, a ball cap with his favorite gold block “G” stitched in the front, with a gob of keys for every lock on campus, a voice perpetually hoarse, and a motor that rarely saw idle as he stood up for a city school in a rough part of town and proudly called it home.
Alberghini — or Coach Al — was honored on the field that bears his name. Pacers past and present, coaches past and present, faculty and staff past and present, community members and rival coaches bid farewell to a California High School Football Hall of Famer who was every bit that as a guiding force to all kids who roamed the hallways and quads at Grant. He died Feb. 12 at 78 from the effects of a late 2022 stroke, but his legacy lives on.
Guest speakers took the microphone to share stories of a man who never played a down of football growing up but became something of an expert on building up players and teams with his sheer force of will. He was a seven-time CIF Sac-Joaquin Section champion, an 18-time league title winner and the leader of 27 playoff teams, not to mention the nearly 500 games he won as a fiercely competitive baseball coach at Grant. There were laughs Saturday afternoon, and there were tears for a man who touched the lives of thousands.
Alberghini is an example of the right coach settling into a good fit and then turning it into gold. He was Grant, and Grant was Coach Al. He was so beloved by players that they deemed him too important to disappoint. To get scolded by the man was a badge of honor, because it meant you had his attention, and that he cared. To get a compliment or a hug, or to be a victim of his dry wit and one-liners, was a true gift.
Alberghini was inspired by his mentor, former Sacramento State baseball coach Cal Boyes, to get into teaching and coaching as his baseball days wound down in college.
“When I think about it, I know I was really fortunate to be in the right place, the right school for me, the kind of kids I loved to coach and needed to coach,” Alberghini said in his last public interview in 2023. “A lot of great times and people and memories. I’ll remember that the most. I’ll remember it until the day I die.”
Alberghini was The Sacramento Bee’s Coach of the Decade for the 1990s and the 2000s, and his Pacers The Bee’s Team of the Decade both times. Players from the late 1990s spoke, including former NFL players Donte Stallworth and Onterrio Smith, both of them about the impact of the man and his lessons the remain.
Oh, and that he could curse. The man had a sharp tongue, once telling The Bee that he could curse in eight languages, reflective on the diversity on campus.
‘You made his life whole’
The emcee for the event and the man who gave the scripture to open up was Phillip Goudeaux II. He was as jovial as he was heartfelt, saying of Coach Al, “He was my favorite coach. He only cussed me out twice.”
The crowd roared, including Alberghini’s wife of nearly 50 years, Mary, seated in the front row.
Several speakers told the Alberghini family that they loved coach Al and appreciate the family for sharing the teacher/coach with them.
Said son Rob Alerghini, as he spoke for the family, “I hope everyone here knows that for everything he was able to contribute to this school and community, everything he had to say, he got it right back from you. Rarely does a person get a chance to do what he wants to do in life, and then is good at it. You made this his home. You made his life whole.”
Alberghini’s fierce game face, blood-shot blue eyes and constant motion, be it body parts or verbiage, only made up part of the package. He won nearly 500 games as Grant’s baseball coach, setting a still-standing state record for wins in a season with 37 in 1989, when he led the Pacers to their only CIF section crown.
He guided the football program when the Pacers towered over the region with big linemen, 4- and 5-star recruits and a defense that mirrored the coach’s intensity. In 2008, Grant won the region’s first CIF State football crown, doing so in the highest classification of the Open Division, beating nationally ranked No. 2 Long Beach Poly with a late drive. The quarterback of that team, Kipeli Konisetti, spoke Saturday and said Alberghini “changed a lot of our lives. We’re forever thankful.”
Grant remains the only public school in the state to win the CIF Open football game, and Sacramento hailed the Pacers as heroes upon their return to Sacramento, honoring them with a downtown parade. After winning that game in Carson, Alberghini left one of his trademark Grant hats with the block G inside the Long Beach Poly locker room, telling The Bee later, “They’ll think the G stands for God or Grant, but they’ll know we were here.”
That story was retold on Saturday, and the crowd soaked it up.
Coach Al would ‘tell it like it was’
Alberghini was also thanked by speakers for caring about everyone: other teachers, fans young and old, those in the band, the scholars, the athletes, the kids barely getting by. He believed in all of them, and he would challenge his football players with this blast of reality, telling a group before one playoff game in 2014, “All of you want to play football in college, but that’s not realistic. But you can all go to college, so do so, and come back and tell me about it so I can be proud of you all over again.”
Alberghini over the decades drove hundreds of kids home after practices and games in his compact car, the topic big on life, of making something out of yourself.
Smith, the former NFL running back, said that the car in question was a Geo Storm, and that car would come looking for the prolific running back who set regional rushing records in 1998 if he was late for a summer workout.
He and Alberghini would rub each other wrong, sometimes daily, both stubborn to the core. The coach usually won the debates, because he controlled the playing time, and then Smith would give every ounce on every run to please the boss.
“He’d tell it like it was and tell me, ‘Get your sissy tail over there!’” Smith said with a laugh. “When I was trying to figure out which college to go to on signing day (in 1999), either the University of Oregon or the University of Tennessee, I started crying. He took me outside, pulled me in for a hug and said something that stayed with me: ‘You’ll play as a true freshman, I’ve never seen anyone like you.’”
Smith said he, too, has overcome recent health issues, bad enough that he needs a wheelchair. He said Coach Al’s lasting lesson of overcoming and pushing forward despite obstacles has inspired him to recover fully.
“I’m getting better every day,” Smith said, the crowd cheering. “He was a man you wanted to play for. He will definitely be missed, a good man.
“Name another guy who raised an entire ZIP code.”
Coach Al’s wife with powerhouse statement
Ricky Jordan, dressed in a suit and a Grant gold-colored tie, reflected on Alberghini’s belief in him more than 40 years ago. Jordan wanted to be a star baseball player. He became one.
“June 6, 1983, and Coach Al and I had a great moment on campus,” Jordan said. “We hugged and cried tears of joy. He told me that I’d been drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Told me to go home and tell my mom. I told her, and she fell to the floor, saying, ‘Oh, no! My baby got drafted into the Army!’ She didn’t know about sports drafts.”
Pastor Tommie Williams, a constant on the Grant sideline for most all of Alberghini’s 31 years as head football coach, told the crowd that Alberghini was “a mentor, a friend, a guiding light dedicated to helping others. A true legend in education, athletics.”
Grant’s football legacy endures under the coaching guidance of an army of former Pacers who played for Alberghini. This includes head coach Carl Reed, who led the current-era Pacers to three successive CIF section crowns and another CIF State championship. He told the crowd, “I followed the greatest of all time, and it wasn’t easy, but my career has been molded and inspired by him. I told him once that there will never be another man like his name here will outlive us all. His name will always be on this field.”
The day’s last speaker was Charity Bailey, Grant class of 1998, when she was the school’s rally commissioner. She went on to work in media across the country, and reflected on how Alberghini teased her about her ability to raise her voice, to stand strong and how well she knew the game of football.
She continued the theme that “legends never die.” Mary Alberghini, Coach Al’s bride of 50 years, nodded yes and wiped away tears. She said coaching and teaching meant a lot of missed dinners and events as a family. But she knew he loved her, and he spoke often about her in Bee stories and to those close to him.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Mary said after the event about his time commitment to the Pacers. “This is where he belonged. This is home. He would have loved this today. He would have been so happy, though we are sad.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 7:03 PM.