Though John and Keri Altobelli practically raised their kids on Orange Coast College’s baseball diamond, friends said the couple wasn’t disappointed when their two girls didn’t follow in their dad’s dusty footsteps.
Jim Altobelli , the father of Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, walks though the home dugout at OCC the day after his son died in a helicopter crash with his wife Keri Altobelli and daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. All three died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Baseball trainer Chaz Kekipi pauses for a moment near baseball coach John Altobelli’s jersey at Pirate Park at Orange Coast College as people gather to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Baseball trainer Chaz Kekipi, center, consoles fellow trainer Isabel Carpio, right, and OCC athletic employee Ashley Rippeon at Pirate Park as they gather to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Baseball trainer Chaz Kekipi wears a black strip on his cap to remember coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College women’s basketball coach Sammy Doucette, right, hug college president Angelica Suarez as they gather to remember baseball coach John Altobelli at Pirate Park in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A memorial sits at home plate to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A memorial sits at home plate to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jersey’s belonging to baseball coach John Altobelli’s hang at the entrance to Pirate Park at Orange Coast College as people gather to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. The letters “NEGU” stand for “Never Ever Give Up” (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Santa Ana College softball team pause to remember baseball coach John Altobelli at Pirate Park at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A memorial sits at home plate to remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Doug Bennett, director of the Orange Coast College Foundation, pauses at a home plate memorial for baseball coach John Altobelli at Pirate Park at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A baseball is one of the many items left at a makeshift memorial at home plate Orange Coast College baseball field in Costa Mesa on Sunday, January 26, 2020 for Orange Coast College baseball Coach Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa who were killed in the helicopter crash that also killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the Santa Ana College softball team pause to remember baseball coach John Altobelli at Pirate Park at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Orange Coast College baseball players Zebadiah Storie, left, Oscar Favela, center, and Enrique Morales pause at a memorial remember baseball coach John Altobelli in Costa Mesa CA, on Monday, Jan 27, 2020. Altobelli, his wife Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa Altobelli, all died in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant on Jan. 26, 2020. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A makeshift memorial was created on home plate Orange Coast College baseball field in Costa Mesa on Sunday, January 26, 2020 for Orange Coast College baseball Coach Altobelli, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa who were killed in the helicopter crash that also killed former Lakers star Kobe Bryant. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
John Altobelli, top center, his wife Keri, top right, and daughter Alyssa, bottom left, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, CA on January 26, 2020. Six others, including Kobe Bryant, were killed in the crash.
Also in the photo are daughter Alexis Altobelli, bottom right, and son JJ Altobelli, top left. (Photo courtesy Doug Bennett)
Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli died in a helicopter crash along with Kobe Byrant and three others in Calabasas Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020.(Register file photo)
Longtime OCC head baseball coach Altobelli, 56, his wife, Keri, 46, and their daughter Alyssa, 13, were killed Sunday, Jan. 26, in a Calabasas helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of six others, including legendary Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, 13. The crash, which is under investigation by federal transportation officials, occurred while the group of parents and children were headed to Bryant’s youth basketball academy northwest of Los Angeles
The Altobellis were “the First Family of OCC,” said Nate Johnson, the school’s acting head baseball coach. “All three of his kids grew up here.”
J.J. Altobelli, John’s son from a previous marriage, played and coached baseball in Orange County before becoming a scout for the Boston Red Sox, Orange Coast College Foundation Executive Director Douglas Bennett said. John and Keri’s daughters, Alyssa and 16-year-old Alexis, were batgirls for their dad’s team, Johnson said.
Keri Altobelli and the girls regularly came out to watch the Pirates play, sitting in their designated spot on the first base line. But baseball wasn’t the family’s only athletic interest.
Alyssa, a friend and teammate on the Orange County-based Mambas with Gianna Bryant, was a standout basketball player who won praise from Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy. She was an eighth grader at Ensign Intermediate School. Alexis has played several sports including tennis, Johnson said, also recalling that when one of the girls tried softball and hated it, John Altobelli “just laughed and said all right.”
John Altobelli was a driven fundraiser for OCC’s baseball program and strove to help his players mature, find scholarships and transfer to four-year universities, Bennett said. “He was a perfectionist and he demanded a lot of his kids, but also he really cared about them. He worked to build them up as young men.”
Next-door neighbors Debra and Guy Biagiotti, who live in the Newport Coast community where the Altobellis moved in 2018, said some people have responded to their shock over the tragedy by leaving flowers and cards outside the Altobellis’ door.
Guy Biagiotti described John Altobelli as a genuinely nice person who’d stop to chat while washing his car in front of the house, and he recalled that soon after the family moved in, Keri gave them a plant to apologize for any annoyance her barking dog, Freckles, may have caused.
The Pirates decided to play their season-opening game on Tuesday, Jan. 28, but will first pay tribute to their coach of nearly three decades. The OCC Foundation has set up a memorial fund to benefit J.J. and Alexis Altobelli, and Johnson said the college and its athletic community will put its arms around the coach’s surviving children.
“Your family has taken care of us over the years and we’re going to take care of you,” he said. “We’re going to be their family.”
