David Bregante has been named the boys varsity basketball coach at Santa Barbara High, athletic director Nan Verkaik confirmed.
Bregante, a 1961 Santa Barbara grad, takes over for Chris Hantgin, who stepped down from the position two weeks ago in order to devote his full attention to teaching.
Bregante has been working as the Dons’ frosh-soph coach the last four years. Previously, he was the boys JV coach at Rio Mesa High, where he taught for 24 years. He retired four years ago.
“I think it’s great,” Bregante said about coaching the varsity at his alma mater. “I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a challenge. We’ll see how it goes.”
He takes over a program that’s won only three games in the last two seasons.
He is familiar with several of the players on the varsity, having coached them at the lower level.
“We’re going to be doing quite a few things differently. I’m going to put in my system,” he said. “It’s going to be a real learning experience for a while. We’ll get better as we go along.”
Bregante played for a couple of coaching legends: Gene Snyder at Santa Barbara High and Tom Byron at Westmont College.
Bregante’s son, Joseph, played on the 2005-06 Dons team that went 19-9 and reached the second round of the playoffs. He’ll be part of his father’s coaching staff along with his SBHS teammate Andy Gil and Kim Kjar, the athletics director at the Eastside Boys and Girls Club.
“We’ll see if we can get the program going in the right direction,” said Bregante. “The main focus now is get the kids playing, get my system put in and see if we can get going.”
The Dons open the season Dec. 2 at Oxnard.
