Not often does a school or organization honor a person by naming a field or a gymnasium after that individual. At Culver City High School, they have bestowed this honor to two people, former coach and athletic director Jerry Chabola and former coach Del Goodyear. The football field and stadium are named after Chabola and the gym is named after Goodyear.
On Saturday, March 7, at 11 a.m. another name will join that illustrious group. His name is Rick Prieto. The baseball field will officially be named in his honor on Saturday. It’s an honor well deserved. Prieto is a 1974 graduate of Culver City High School, and he was the baseball coach there for 29 years and he was also a Physical Education teacher. He is still teaching but he retired from coaching a few years ago.
As a coach, teacher and mentor Prieto has been a role model to many students and athletes. One of those student athletes is Devaughn Wallace. Wallace replaced Prieto when he retired as the baseball coach. “I think it’s awesome,” said Wallace referring to Prieto’s big day on Saturday. “It’s very deserving. Coach Prieto is a great guy. I have learned so much from him and he is still around being a mentor to the program.”
The Culver City baseball field is one of the best-looking fields on the Westside and Prieto is directly responsible for that. For many years he was not only the varsity baseball coach, but he was also the keeper of the field. Any day of the week you could see Prieto working on the field. “To this day you might catch him mowing the grass,” said Wallace. “He is still helping the program. He deserves this honor.”
After the Prieto ceremony the Culver City baseball team will face El Segundo at 2 p.m. Prieto and the rest of the Culver City baseball community will be looking for the Centaurs to start winning games. At press time (Wednesday, March 4) Culver City was 0-6-1
“Right now, it’s all about getting experience,’ said Wallace last Saturday before their 5-3 lost to Torrance. “We learned last year that our league may not have been that strong so when it came time for the playoffs we weren’t as prepared as we should have been. This year we stepped up the schedule, and we are playing a lot of really good teams, and I think we will benefit from playing a tough schedule in the long run.”
One player that can help turn things around is Nolan Riesenberg who is also a wide receiver on the football team. The junior plays multiple positions on the baseball team including infield, outfield and pitcher. In the game against Torrance, he made a great catch in center field in the first inning. “Some of our pitchers are hurt and our hitting is not the best right now,” said Riesenberg.
If the Culver City can turn their season around one of the happiest Centaurs will probably be Rick Prieto, the former coach, mentor and teacher and also the keeper of the field.
