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1,500 games later, Solvang coach steps down

By Raiza Canelon/Staff Writer

What started as a request by a family friend somehow turned into a 32-year, part-time career for Tom Rogowski coaching basketball for Solvang Elementary School.

This season marked his last with Solvang, but he continues to coach at Midland School, where he also works as the business manager and athletic director.

“I love coaching because of the excitement of the game and watching the kids improve throughout the season,” he said.

Each year he has coached both a boys and a girls “A” team and “B” team of sixth- to eighth-graders. He finished this year on a high note, as the girls “A” team went undefeated on the way to a league championship and the boys “A” team won its league tournament.

Rogowski has lived in Solvang since 1976, when he opened the Sports Barn on the corner of Alisal Road and Mission Drive. He owned the business for 25 years before it closed a little more than a year ago.

“Sports has always been in my life. I would say basketball is my favorite, because once you learn the rules, it’s a rather simple game,” Rogowski said.

His elementary coaching stint began after a friend’s son asked him to coach the youth’s basketball team in 1977. Rogowski had already been helping to coach at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School for a couple of years.

His goal for each season at Solvang, he said, was to simplify the game for his players, teaching passing, shooting and dribbling techniques.

He says basketball provides life lessons, because each game gives goals to accomplish and teaches youth about how to deal with failure or celebrate success.

“When you play basketball you work hard and practice. Even if you fail, you try again and keep on going,” Rogowski said.

In the late 1970s when his first daughter Kristen was a toddler, he got together with the three other coaches from Santa Ynez, Buellton and Los Olivos elementary schools to form a girls basketball league so his children would have an opportunity to play.

The league has since expanded to include not only those four schools but also Valley Christian, Vista Las Cruces, Jonata, Dunn and Santa Ynez Valley Charter schools.

One of his daughter’s friends, Erin Alexander — whom Rogowski coached — went on to play for the Los Angeles Sparks and the Utah Starzz in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

“I remember her coming over and asking me to teach her how to shoot. We spent Sunday afternoons working on her jump shot. It was really Erin’s work ethic that got her to the WNBA. I just helped her practice,” Rogowski said.

Rogowski doesn’t keep track of how many wins and losses he’s had through the years, though he guesses he’s coached something like 1,500 to 1,600 games and won perhaps 1,200 of them.

He has also learned that 80 percent of what the players practice doesn’t get applied during a game.

“The game is all about having fun and working hard. I see young coaches getting frustrated that their practice routines don’t get in the games, but it’s really about the team being successful and working together that counts during the game,” Rogowski said.

Even though he won’t be an official coach for Solvang any longer, he emphasized that he will still be available on Sunday afternoons at his house to work on jump shots.

rcanelon@syvnews.com