Team Helps Her Triumph Over Tragedy : Preps: After the deaths of her mother and father, San Gabriel High cross-country Coach Michele Buchicchio gains support from her athletes, who will make their state championship debut Saturday.

Everything just sort of fell into place for the San Gabriel High boys’ cross-country team this season.

At least, that is the story Coach Michele Buchicchio tells initially when asked to sum up the performance of the Matadors, who will make a first-ever appearance in the state championship meet Saturday at Fresno.

A deeper examination reveals that things did not fall together so much as they fell apart.

Buchicchio, believed to be the only woman ever to guide a boys’ cross-country team to the state meet, endured deep personal losses before the season and emotional turmoil throughout.

In September, on his 49th wedding anniversary, Buchicchio’s father died from lung cancer. Nine days later, her mother died from complications brought on by a heart condition, asthma, and, Buchicchio theorizes, a broken heart.

Buchicchio’s pain has served as an emotional rallying point for team members who have literally grown up under her leadership since they were freshmen.

“I missed the first few weeks of school, but I remember coming down a street near campus one day as I was driving to the hospital,” Buchicchio said. “The kids had just finished a workout and they came over to the car and said: ‘Coach, don’t worry, we’re not going to quit on you, we’re going to be there for you just like you’re there for us. Take care of what you need to do and we’ll take care of things until you get back.’

“I needed to know that. The team was the one thing in my life I felt real secure about. I knew they were going to be all right because they had each other to depend on.”

Coaches and their athletes often speak of familial relationships. In most cases, it is an ideal rather than reality.

Not at San Gabriel, where Buchicchio, 35, is almost revered by her charges. The mutual support between coach and team members helped San Gabriel make its historic run to the state championships.

Spurred by the individual championship performance of senior Angel Martinez, the Matadors finished fourth in Division I at the Southern Section championships last weekend at Mt. San Antonio College.

San Gabriel and San Marino were the only boys’ teams from the San Gabriel Valley to qualify for the 20-team state meet.

“Our team has become a second family,” senior Valentin Pingarron said. “Coach is the one that forged that bond between us.

“To think that I’m sort of a son or a family member of hers is something I take pride in. I feel that sense of closeness that not many athletes feel with their coaches.”

Buchicchio, married and mother of a 3-year-old daughter, is an accomplished runner herself. As Michele Hopper, she competed in the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 800 and 1,500 meters and narrowly missed qualifying for the 1988 trials after the birth of her daughter. In 1989, the Alhambra High graduate was ranked among the top 15 road racers in the United States.

Now in her eighth season at San Gabriel, Buchicchio gets plenty of mileage from her own competitive experience. She often trains with her team, helping her athletes improve their performance through her example.

“She’s kind of a mother figure,” said Martinez, who won the Division I title by covering the hilly three-mile course in 15 minutes, 14 seconds. “Everything she says is important. Whatever workout she says to do, I go out and do it. She’s wise. If the workout is going to be good for her, it’s going to be good for all of us.”

Team members say they enjoy the perspective that Buchicchio provides as a woman.

“With a male coach, I think there would be a tendency to argue more,” senior Lee Abbott said. “With Coach Buchicchio, you don’t have that drive to argue. She has a different way of looking at things. I listen a little bit more.”

Buchicchio, likewise, is glad to be coaching in a sport where female mentors are the exception, even for girls’ teams.

“It’s kind of fun to be a novelty,” she said. “Very few of the women I ran with and competed against are still involved in the sport. I once had a coach who told me, ‘You can repay me for working with you by giving something back to the sport.’ That’s something I’ve done and I wish more women would do.”

Buchicchio is hoping the effort her team gives Saturday will result in a top-five finish. Along with Martinez, Pingarron and Abbott, the Matadors will take a team to Fresno that includes seniors Ray Olivas and David Copeland, juniors Edwin Padilla and Kenny Monroy and sophomores Victor Capetillo and Oscar Estrada.

“Angel is just sort of coming into his own right now,” Buchicchio said. “He has a chance to win the whole thing. We had some individuals who really didn’t run as well as they are capable of last week. If they can come together on Saturday, we can do well.”

San Gabriel’s season will end after the state meet, but Buchicchio and her runners say they will continue to be there for each other.

“It’s been a real difficult season emotionally, because as bad as I’ve felt, I know it hasn’t all really hit me yet,” she said. “The holidays are coming. I don’t have my parents to share it with, but I have my team.”