PETALUMA, Calif. – It’s been just short of a year since former St. Vincent de Paul associate athletic director Gary Von Raesfeld died unexpectedly at the age of 59 the morning following cleaning up and closing the gym the previous night after what was then called the St. Vincent de Paul Winter Showdown.
Von has passed on but the tournament at the school he loved and served for nearly 40 years lives on and quite appropriately has been renamed the Gary Von Raesfeld Memorial Tournament.
Even more appropriately, host St. Vincent de Paul (9-0) won one for their favorite son and the school he dedicated his life to with a convincing 57-38 victory in the championship game over Elite High-Vallejo on Saturday afternoon.
“Gary’s was the heart and soul here and his spirit was here tonight,” said St. Vincent de Paul head coach Tom Bonfigli. “The kids loved him.”
“Its an honor to win this tournament in his name,” Bonfigli continued. “The kid talked about it before we went out and the kids played their hearts out just like Gary would expect them to.”
Cole Williams, a 6-2 senior forward that sat out his entire junior year after transferring to get an opportunity to play for legendary veteran Mustangs Coach Tom Bonfigli, earned MVP honors after going for a game high 25 points (two 3-pointers) with eight rebounds.
Senior guard Sebastian Andrade added nine points, all on three-pointers, with three steals and two rebounds, Josh Malik, a 6-3 senior post, had eight points, six rebounds and two blocks, and junior guard Justin Greco chipped in with eight points, two rebounds and two assists.
With the win St. Vincent de Paul is only one win shy of the 10 wins they had all last season when they finished 10-17 and missed the playoffs. The victory was also career win No. 852 for the “Bonfather” as he’s affectionately referred by the St. Vincent de Paul community. According to the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book the win continued to solidify his spot as the sixth winningest coach in state history and No. 2 in the CIF North Coast Section behind the 914 career wins of Don Lippi.
A big part of the turnaround from last year is the addition of Williams, who transferred from cross-town Casa Grande, and Greco, who transferred from Petaluma and also had to sit out his sophomore season.
“It was one hundred percent worth the wait to play for Coach Bonfigli,” said Williams, who is really only in his first year of high school basketball since not only did he sit out last year, he didn’t play as a sophomore or freshman. “I’ve learned so much from him between fundamentals, defense and playing as a team.”
Despite it being only his ninth game for the Mustangs, it was apparent Williams is the leader on the team besides its best player.
“Being a team leader is a great experience,” Williams remarked. “After sitting out for so long, sitting on the bench, and putting hours and hours of hard work in it’s a great feeling to finally be a team leader and lead a team with all my boys, my friends.”
The way the game started it looked like the size and athleticism of Elite was going to be a problem for the hosts. They trailed most of the first quarter and fell behind 19-14 in the early second quarter, but by the time Williams drained a three-pointer as the final points of the first half, St. Vincent de Paul had a 13-0 run to lead 27-19 at the half.
The lead stayed around eight points most of the third quarter, but Williams keyed a 7-0 run to end the third and the Mustangs had a comfortable 45-30 advantage entering the final period.
Elite (6-3) got 15 points from Savion McCray.
The good news for St. Vincent de Paul fans is the team should improve with a couple of the football players like senior guard Nico Antonini, returning to the team after winning a state CIF Division 6-AA state championship last Friday.
“This is a good group. I love their attitude and they love one another,” said Bonfigli, who won’t be able to catch the retired Lippi since the 70-year old Bonfather is retiring himself at the end of this season. “We’re going to get better with the football players coming back on Monday. I’m even more excited than I was from the beginning with this team.”
“Right now this is a good starting point for our team but I think we’ve still got a lot to learn as a team, and we need to stick together and not make mistakes,” Williams said. “This was one of the best games we’ve played so far and I’m really happy with what we did here.”
Next up for St. Vincent de Paul is a road game on Tuesday in San Lorenzo at Redwood Christian.
