St. Vincent coach honored for 41 years of teaching basketball – and life

St. Vincent High School basketball coach Tom Bonfigli has added another award to a collection of honors, records, accolades and wins that spice his four-decade career: The veteran coach has been named the 2023 North Coast Section Honor Coach of the Year.

Even the coach is impressed. “It is like a lifetime achievement award,” he pointed out. “If I could choose one award to win it would be this one.” The award is given to only one coach from all NCS divisions each year.

As of the start of this week, Bonfigli had coached 838 winning games, and the total has the potential to grow every time his current St. Vincent team takes the floor. He ranks seventh in the state all-time in wins, is fifth among active coaches, and second among NCS coaches – just five games behind the late Mike Phelps of St. Joseph of Alameda and Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland.

Bonfigli coached at Justin-Siena and Cardinal Newman before taking on the St. Vincent program in the 2020-21 season. Twice, his Cardinal Newman teams played for the state championship. He coached the only two Redwood Empire teams to go undefeated (26-0) in the regular season. Four times he coached 30-win teams and, perhaps most amazingly, his teams have averaged 20 wins a season for 41 years.

The list goes on, but the numbers aren’t the reason the 69-year-old Bonfigli continues to coach.

“What is most important to me are the kids and the relationships I have with them,” he said. “I love the kids and I love the competition.”

Even more than coaching the game he loves, Bonfigli loves teaching.

“I understand that coaching is about developing the character of the player,” he said.

It was an opportunity to teach not only on the court, but also in the classroom that convinced Bonfigli to accept Principal Pat Daly’s offer to take the job at St. Vincent after the coach left Cardinal Newman following a dispute with the school administration.

In addition to coaching basketball, he also teaches theology, vocation and economics at St. Vincent.

A 1971 graduate of Cardinal Newman, where he was a star football player, he was hired to coach the Newman basketball team in 1980 and coached the Cardinals for 14 years before moving to Justin-Siena in Napa, where his winning ways continued.

He spent 12 years at Justin-Sierna, where his teams compiled a 225-120 record and had nine 20-win seasons.

He left Justin-Siena to return to Cardinal Newman, becoming something of a Redwood Empire coaching legend as Cardinal championships, section titles and victories continued to grow, along with his reputation for developing quality young men along with outstanding basketball players.

He took the St. Vincent job prior to the 2020-21 season – just in time for the COVID-shortened season, with the Mustangs playing just 12 games.

Last season, with COVID-19 still lingering, and several players getting a late start because of a football season that extended to the NorCal playoffs, the Mustangs had a winning season, going 15-11. So far this season, St. Vincent is 5-7.

Bonfigli acknowledges his current team might be a season away from a breakout, but he says the big season is coming.

Three transfer students who would have helped this season were ruled ineligible by the NCS, but all are underclassmen and will be eligible next season. In addition, there are several talented sophomores and freshmen honing their skills on a good junior varsity team coached by Nick Iacopi.

When they arrive at the varsity level, they will be led by none other than Tom Bonfigli, North Coast Section Honor Coach of the Year.