The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - U of H Coach Todd Whitting Discusses the Life of John Altobelli

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

University of Houston Baseball Coach Todd Whitting joins Matt to discuss the life of his friend John Altobelli, who tragically died in the same helicopter as Kobe Bryant

All right now, and it's always a good time to visit with a good friend, but this is unfortunately a bad situation we're doing so with, and we're going to talk right now with Todd Winning. He is the head baseball coach of our beloved Houston Cougars. And coach, thanks for spending a couple minutes with us here. John Untebelly was a friend of yours, a fellow baseball coach. Take us through what it was like for you when you had heard that your friend and your fellow coach was a part of the unfortunate accidents of yesterday.

Well, absolutely devastating. He was a great personal friend of mine in my wife. You know, I've known John and Kerry for years, and obviously he was a great player here. He was an 1845, and then I was an assistant coach in 87, so it's just truly a huge loss for me personally in the program and college baseball. Well, no question about that.

Did you know he had a relationship because of the daughters and the basketball and the basketball team? I mean, how did you know that, did you even know that he had gone on Kobe's helicopter in the past? Yeah, he and Kobe, you know, they're parents. And, you know, that's kind of their relationship is they're very close. A couple years ago, my wife and I were having dinner with Alto and his wife at our favorite spot out there called Mikaasa in Orange in the Costa Mesa.

He mentioned then that his daughter was playing on Kobe's team and, you know, how excited he was about it. And that's, you know, she said, Alyssa, you know, was on that team for a couple of years. So they've become really good friends. You know, nothing public, but just, you know, they can just be and parents together. From what I have read, he sent a lot of your kids to your program from there. Have you been able to reach out to any of those young men

that obviously know Coach Alto very well? Yeah, we've had five guys here in the program that come directly from Orange Coast College and, you know, four since my time back as the head coach here. So they're, you know, they're crushed. I mean, they're, you know, Alto is one of those guys. Everybody loves him. And it's just tremendous spirit, tremendous passion for his players, you know, the game and people in general. So they were, you know, a couple of them moved back out to Orange County.

They went to the little ceremony they had yesterday at the baseball stadium. But, you know, they're obviously very upset over the whole situation. Ty Wooding, head baseball coach University of Houston, talking about his friend who perished yesterday, John Altebelling, his wife Carrie, their daughter, or Alyssa, part of the Kobe Bryant in the helicopter crash. What kind of coach was Coach Altebelly? You knew him a little bit from sending some kids there, but what kind of style was he?

When you teach at a community college and coach for as long as you had, that must be a passion for those young guys that are trying to make the next step and maybe looking to move on to play at a Division I baseball program. Well, he's turned Orange Coast College into one of the premier junior colleges in the country. He won the California State Championship last year. He was the ABCA National Junior College Coach of the Year this past season. So I'm not sure that's not the throat. He may have won that award a couple of times,

but I know he's won that state championship in California. But, you know, it's one of those guys that the players love him, you know, kind of like his ex-teammates here that he's very passionate about and was still very close too. But, you know, they had great alfo stories. And, you know, he's just kind of a fun-loving guy. You know, I just, I really enjoy it all the time that he and I got to spend together. I would be out there a couple times a year on the recruiting trail.

and, you know, we sometimes stay with he and K or, you know, we'd meet at that, at me Kossum for some lunch and, you know, just talk about the team and the program. He was a very close, obviously, he had players here, but he was a very close follower, you know, what we're doing here at Houston baseball. How often would you speak to him during the course of a calendar year? Oh, goodness, we talk all the time, you know. He, in fact, yesterday morning before, you know, all the tragedy happened, he was actually texting back and forth from my pitching coach, recruiting coordinator,

Coach Rooney, you know, about one of his kids that we're on right now. But we were, you know, it was constant contact with him. He did a tremendous job of supporting his players, and he would try to get his mayor to Houston as he could. I would assume that when you have a job like that at a community college where it doesn't necessarily put you on the road a lot recruiting, that family, like to all of us has been very important. It sounds like he was very involved in Alyssa's basketball career.

He was. He was a great family guy. You know, he was on at three kids. JJ being the oldest, who was a player at Oregon. It is currently a scout for the Boston Red Sox in the Southern California area. Of course, Alyssa, who was on the team, on Kobe's team. And then Lexi, also, the older daughter, you know, just great family. You know, Kay was a tremendous mom. They were very, very tight-knit, very tight-knit crew.

Have you been able to reach out to the other members of the family yet? I texted a little bit with JJ yesterday. You know, and I've talked to, you know, he's a little bit. was extremely close, you know, with a few of his teammates here. I mean, they were like brothers. They, you know, a couple of times you, they'd always try to get together. Yeah. You know, they were, it was one of those really special, you know, of all the former player groups that we have and teams and kind of airs, that, you know, that 86, 87, 87 bunch, you know, it's kind of held together pretty well. And they keep in constant contact with each other.

I know coach, and I'm actually here in Salt Lake City Side, not see it. You've got the video tribute on the big board over at the stadium right now. Is that correct? Yeah, actually I'm sitting in the press box looking at it. It sure do. I mean, this goes on saying this must be extraordinarily surreal time for you. I mean, just to hear of the tragedy for all of them, much less you have a local connection to it. Just must be, I'm sure your wife is in a terror is in a difficult place right now as well, I'm assuming.

Yeah, it's just, you know, the whole thing is sad. You've got so many great people, you know, involved in this. And, you know, there's so many families that are people that are affected. you know, when something like when an accident like this happens, and, you just, it's just devastating. I mean, it's hard to wrap your mind around something like that happened to someone which you know and love and, you know, had such a relationship with them for so long.

Did Alto ever come to Houston on any sort of regular basis? He would bounce here every, you know, every couple years. You know, he would come down and, you know, those guys on that 80s, that bunch that he played with would have get-togethers here. Kay had a friend, really close friend here in the Westview area. that she would come down and visit from Tom to Tom and her. And the girl was actually stopped by one time and visited for a little bit. So he was around as much as he could.

But most of the time, our relationship was me going on the West Coast recruiting or if we were playing out there, stop by and say hello. Coach, I appreciate it. I wish we were visiting under better circumstances. I appreciate you coming on so shortly after this tragedy to you, your Cougar family, your personal family. We wish you nothing but the very best. And please send our regard to the Altebella family when you can.

Well, I appreciate you guys having me on to talk about him. And I also want to kind of give a shout out to all the local media who's, you know, Kobe Bryant's a legend. He's one of the greatest athletes of all time. But I think our local media has done a really good job in honoring John K. And Alyssa during this whole tragedy. Yeah, very well said, my friend. We'll talk to you soon.

Bye, buddy. Thanks. You got it. Todd Wooding, had baseball coach University of Houston. And that's the number one thing about this all is that Kobe's obviously grabbing a lot of the headlines. and understandably so, but there were nine that perished in that accident yesterday. And, man, it sucks. I mean, that anybody would pass in such a situation,

but to have a local tie to it, especially for Coach Whitting, who knew John Antebelly as well as he did and his family. Thank you, again, for Coach Whitting, for spending a couple minutes with us here.