Graziano Wins Respect, Games : Sports Boss at Alemany Is a Lady

Nancy Graziano wins games with regularity. And over her 15 years as a coach and athletic director at Alemany High School in Mission Hills, she has won her share of respect, too.

One of her major coaching rivals, Brian O’Hara of Louisville High, put it simply: “She’s an institution.”

Tonight, her team meets O’Hara’s Louisville team for the league title in a 5 p.m. game at Louisville in Woodland Hills. The last two seasons, the two intense rivals have shared the San Fernando League title. But this season it will be different. This is a winner-take-all contest. Both teams have 12-1 league records.

“It’s really unique this season,” Graziano said. “Not always can you get to know your opponent three times in one season. I sure would like to think it’s our turn.

Louisville has won all three of this season’s games against Alemany--once in league and twice in tournaments. Its only loss in league play came against Chaminade.

Graziano’s coaching credentials led to a promotion almost two years ago. Now, she is not only the school’s athletic director for girls, a title she held since 1977, but she is the school’s athletic director--for girls and boys.

Her girls basketball teams have won or shared the league title each season since 1972, every year she has been the coach. Her volleyball teams over 12 seasons had a cumulative record of 165-75. Her softball teams were 199-25. Her basketball team, which is the only sport she still coaches, is 284-43. In all three sports, her teams have missed the playoffs only once.

Said O’Hara: “She has had a remarkable tenure at a powerful sports school. It’s common knowledge how well respected and up-front about things she is.”

In a school such as Alemany, with a tradition of success in sports, it may have raised some eyebrows when a woman took over supervision of the football team.

But Graziano didn’t back away from the challenge.

“The confidence that I got from the Alemany community was a real boost to me. When I was offered the job, personally, I felt excited about that challenge. I just felt right away that, ‘Yes, I want to do it and yes, I can do that,’ ” she said.

Graziano, 37, now is in charge of 43 coaches in nine boys sports and eight girls sports.

“Afterwards the response was very positive,” she said. “I care about the total school. Alemany’s been pretty special to me. For me to have been involved as a player and a coach here is real important.”

Alemany’s boys coach, Joe Anlauf, in his second year of coaching varsity basketball at the school, said he was a little apprehensive at first to be working for a woman.

“I’ve never had a woman boss before, but it has turned out well,” he said. “Last year I was new, I was stepping into a difficult situation. But she made my transition very simple. This year we clinched a playoff spot for the first time in five years. I give her a lot of credit for allowing me to be successful this year. She handles the little things and lets me coach.”

Graziano’s affection for the school goes back to her days as an Alemany student. In her words, she was “not an outstanding player . . . sort of a roving forward.” That was in the days of six-player girls basketball.

After Alemany, she went to Valley College and Cal State Northridge, earning a degree in physical education.

During her freshman year in college, she became involved in coaching on the grammar school level at St. Ferdinand’s in San Fernando.

“I was as green as they come,” Graziano said. “I didn’t even know what I was going to major in. The principal over at St. Ferdinand’s, which has the same order of nuns as Alemany, called over here and said he was beginning a little physical education program and start some coaching for the boys and girls. My name was given as one of the possibilities. I went over there and was interviewed.

“That was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me a purpose to stay in college. It was at a time in my life and I said, ‘Wow! I want to do this. I want to not only teach but I want to coach.’

“They had PE classes for grades one through eight. After that I coached the seventh and eighth grades in the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) in volleyball, basketball and softball.”

Graziano coached there for five years. She returned to Alemany after college in 1970 as a junior varsity coach and became head coach in three sports the following year.

“I loved coming back to Alemany as a coach. For me to be a part of the sports tradition, first as a player and now a coach, has been real important,” she said.

Graziano has seen a lot of changes in high school athletics over the years. In her first year back at Alemany, for example, girls basketball switched from a team of six players to five.

Said Graziano: “The competition has been a big difference. Now the athletes are better prepared. There are more opportunities to play. Scholarships are available. Girls have just as much interest in competition as the boys.”

Graziano has been instrumental in developing some of the top girl athletes to come out of the Valley. Shelli Moseby, an All-American setter for CSUN’s national runner-up volleyball team, played in all three sports for Graziano.

Charli Turner is another. Turner, who graduated last year and is now starting for Stanford, was “the best guard ever in girls basketball” according to Louisville’s O’Hara.