(Photo: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
RICHMOND — In February 2012, Steve Alameda decided it was time to hang up his whistle after more than 37 years coaching and teaching in West Contra Costa County schools. He was looking forward to a long, uneventful retirement.
But it wasn’t long before the Salesian Boys and Girls Club of Richmond beckoned. The club, deep in debt and in full crisis mode, needed a new leader, and its board decided that Alameda was the right fit. “We just need you for three months,” they told him.
Alameda was uneasy about the idea but agreed to show up to the meeting. When he did, he recognized the faces of people who had looked after him when he attended the club as a child, still involved after all these years. Whatever reluctance he had was out the window.
