Guystalktime  

What a week for us, we lost Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett none from Ventura but certainly part of our collective consciousness.  Ventura is the home of accomplished athletes in 50 sports plus and people that care and as we all mourn these losses let’s also rejoice in our achievements.  Let’s also mourn the passing of Mondo Mary, at 86 one of the oldest living surfers who has a break north of Faria named after her. 

We are focusing on Bob Gagliano today who runs a football camp for quarterbacks and receivers and he can be seen working out at Mavericks in Ventura and he is a 14 year veteran of the NFL that resides in our great city.  Enough will be said about MJ and Farrah but we are going to look at what Bob and his crew are doing to help the incredible football talent become better and compete outside our fair city.  We all have watched the performance of Lee Mondol and Robbie Lee at Ventura High in the early 2000’s. We all watched Whitney Lewis, Lorenzo Booker and a seeming yearly output of national athletes from St Bonaventure and their great coach Jon Mack and his successors coach kids into world class athletes.  Buena has the Keiaho’s and many other individuals that are on the national map.  There are many others in track that are champion throwers with the discus, shot, javelin and other sports like soccer that make us all proud.  But what about the surfers, the skaters and the BMXers that also make us proud?  One thing is clear, it doesn’t matter what sport you achieved in, we recognize you and revere you for what you have done on the fields, courts and ocean venues where we can all see the most incredible athletes perform and we love them all.  No longer a nascent sports area, recruiters flock to the Gold Coast to offer our top athletes scholarships and opportunities. 

Bob played 14 years in the NFL and USFL and his effort is world class bar none.  See Bob in the true perspective that he performed.  Look at him as one of many people that are giving back to the community.  Look at Bob and look at his camps and he is another fellah doing things to make this a better place. 

With his own Wikipedia site, Gagliano is listed as having a nickname of Goose, but when the Breeze talked with him he says he never heard of that name until a few weeks ago when someone Googled him.  Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.  What you can believe is that Bob is a great community leader that has given so much back to the youths of the Ventura.  How many athletes have benefitted from his tutelage? We can’t count them we can only share with the readers that many households remember his efforts and carry on their success not knowing him as the NFL 14 year veteran but as “Coach Bob”.

Maybe you line the PONY baseball field or bring snacks for the soccer team or you hold the down markers for the Packers, you are the heart of sports in this city and the Breeze recognizes your efforts and encourages everyone to get out there and be a factor in our kid’s lives.  It is our zeitgeist that we have some of the highest adult participation in volunteering in Ventura, and most of that in sports.