Rick Bertagnolli

Rick Bertagnolli, a 1978 graduate of Gillespie High School, has a long list of achievements during and after high school. While at GHS, Rick played football, basketball, and baseball for four years and ran track for three years.  As a football player, Bertagnolli was an All-State honorable mention as a junior and an All-Conference player as a senior. He was on the All-Conference Baseball team as a junior.  After high school, he attended both Lewis and Clark Community College and SIUE where he played baseball for both schools.  At SIUE, Rick played in the College World Series Final Four.  He played fast pitch softball for five years and won the Silver Medal at the U.S. Olympic Festival.  His softball coaching career began at Bunker Hill HS in 1984, and he led the team to the IHSA 1A State Championship in 1987.  Bertagnolli was also named the Illinois High School Coach of the Year that same year.  He then jumped to the collegiate level where he had great success at Wabash Valley Junior College, University of South Carolina at Spartanburg, and California University of Pennsylvania.  In 1997 and 1998, he guided California University to back-to-back NCAA Division II National Championships and was also name NCAA National Coach of the Year. Rick was inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.