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With high school football postponed until winter because of the coronavirus pandemic, some Bay Area coaches have called a personal audible. One became Daddy Daycare. Another worked on an assembly line for Second Harvest Food Bank, meeting an unlikely friend.
One started a Facebook group for Black football coaches that he said ballooned from four to 9,000 members. And another has helped monitor negative airflow for coronavirus patients at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Then there is Pittsburg’s Victor Galli. He spent two weeks with his son on a boat in Alaska, hauling in thousands of pounds of salmon from fishing nets for a hefty payday.
“No way I can top the great Vic Galli,” wrote Serra’s Patrick Walsh, who like Galli is a De La Salle graduate.
Let’s start there, with Galli in the land of the midnight sun.
The fisherman
Turns out, the longtime Pittsburg coach and teacher has made many voyages through the years to Alaska, where generations of Galli’s family have done business in the laborious fishing industry since the family immigrated to the United States from Italy. Galli’s cousin, Dominic Papetti, runs the operation.
Galli started going with his father — Victor II, aka Gizzy — in the 1970s and continued to make the summer pilgrimages until he became Pittsburg’s head coach in 2002.
When Galli’s son, Victor IV, now 20, joined the family’s fishing tradition about five years ago, Galli accompanied him.
“I’d go up for like 10 days,” Galli said. “I wouldn’t work like this (summer). I’d just go out and bond with my son.”
But with the pandemic disrupting the upcoming football season, Galli, 55, turned back the clock this time around. He spent 12 consecutive days on the boat, putting his body through a physical pounding while catching what he said was 90,000 pounds of salmon.
“We’re pulling them in by hand,” Galli said. “And you have to pick the fish out of the nets. You don’t sleep very much. You’re working pretty much around the clock. It’s hard work.”
But it’s profitable. Galli said salmon while he was there was selling for about $1.50 per pound.
“One day in a 12-hour period, we got like 10,000 pounds,” Galli added. “Do the math. That’s like $15,000. But then you have to pay the crew. Everybody gets a piece of the pie. The money is really good, but you never know. Sometimes the fish aren’t there.”
The Gallis fish in Bristol Bay, a destination that starts with a plane ride to Anchorage followed by an hour flight to King Salmon.
“The only way to get to where we’re at is by air or boat,” Galli said. “You cannot drive to where we are.”
Galli said he was 12 the first time his father brought him along, adding that his grandfather and great grandfather also made the trips.
And, yes, they eat plenty of fish while they’re there.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Galli said. “It’s such a great product, especially when it comes right off the boat. Cut a couple of pieces up. We’re barbecuing them, frying them. Beer batter. It’s a great, delicious fish.”
Friendly foes
Branham football coach Stephen Johnson was working as a substitute teacher in the South Bay when the coronavirus erupted last spring, leaving him unemployed.
He began a temp job at Second Harvest Food Bank and soon struck up a friendship with a coworker, Milpitas Mayor Richard Tran, a Milpitas High graduate and die-hard supporter of the school’s football team. Tran was helping at the food bank as part of the 129th Service Wing of the U.S. Air Force, Johnson noted.
The two had plenty to talk about, given that Milpitas edged Branham in overtime for a Central Coast Section championship last fall, but friendship won the day as they helped provide goods for families in need.
“I was grateful for my time I spent serving our community and getting to know Richard Tran,” Johnson wrote. “I believe I have made a lifelong friend from this experience. We laugh because we were on opposing sidelines just a few months ago on the biggest stage with no idea who either of us was and now we are on the same team fighting hunger during this pandemic.”
Meeting for a cause
Deer Valley coach Robert Hubbard started a Facebook group for Black football coaches that began with four members — himself, Skyline’s Joe Bates, Castelmont’s Ed Washington and Richmond’s George Jackson.
Black Football Coaches United now has 9,000 members from across the country, Hubbard noted.
The group’s mission?
“To help change the disparity in Black coaches having head coaching positions at the high school, college and professional level,” Hubbard wrote. “Excited about its growth and the potential of it.”
Keeping them safe
Alameda coach Robin Morris works in the engineering department at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He and his colleagues monitor negative airflow for COVID-19 patients, among other responsibilities.
“We are always making sure patients, staff and families are safe,” Morris wrote.
At home, meanwhile, Morris is like many husbands, noting that “my wife has added to my honey-do list.”
Kids are all right
Archbishop Riordan coach Mark Modeste — aka Daddy Daycare — summed up his summer responsibilities like this:
“I didn’t make it up to Alaska,” he wrote. “But I ran a 7 days a week overnight academic/athletic/arts and craft camp; all meals and nap time stories included for five children ages 12 to 2 while my wife worked as a nurse practitioner conducting home medical visits.
“As our thoughts and prayers stay with all the people truly suffering and the difficulties facing our nation, I will look back on this time in a strange way as a blessing and time with my children I will not soon forget.”
