Jack Trigueiro, SBHS Basketball and Tennis Coach, Dies at 88

Coach Made Santa Barbara High Dons a Scourge of the Courts

Jack Trigueiro (foreground) with the 1970 Santa Barbara High boys basketball team, including future NBA players Jamaal Keith Wilkes (42) and Don Ford (20). | Credit: Courtesy

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.

Trigueiro at courtside during his tennis team’s run of 10 CIF championships. | Credit: Courtesy

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.