Jack Trigueiro, a hard-driving coach who made the Santa Barbara High Dons the scourge of basketball and tennis courts, died Wednesday, September 14, at his home in Montecito. He was 88.
A native of Bakersfield, where he was a notorious street fighter, Trigueiro played on UCSB’s basketball team in 1959-60 and pursued a career in education. He was hired in 1964 as a teacher-coach at Santa Barbara High. Over the next three decades, he compiled a résumé that put him into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame, class of 1999.
His basketball teams compiled a 204-90 record over 14 seasons, winning five Channel League championships. He coached three future NBA players – Victor Bartolome, Jamaal Keith Wilkes, and Don Ford. Wilkes and Ford played on the 1970 team that went undefeated until the CIF semifinals.