St. Anthony High School announced that Vincent Nolasco has been hired as the school’s new athletic director, joining the Saints from Don Bosco Tech, where he served in the same role for the past four years.
Nolasco is a native of La Puente, who has prior AD experience from his time at Christ the Teacher Catholic Elementary School in Delaware and St. Vincent Elementary School in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of New Mexico Highlands University where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree while studying Human Performance Science, and he’s received additional certifications from Columbia University and the University of Florida.
Back in his high school days, Nolasco was a free safety on the football field, playing three years at Don Bosco Tech before transferring to Salesian High. He then walked on at New Mexico Highlands, playing one more season of football, but eventually made the switch to athletics administration during college.
“Being a former athlete and still having that competitive juice, AD’s are still competitive, so that’s the reason I took this great opportunity,” said Nolasco of his new role at St. Anthony. “It’s gonna be a great competitive challenge. I’m gonna do my best to bring success to the various athletic programs and the student athletes. At the end of the day, it’s all about the student athletes, and the various head coaches and their staffs as well … My job is to provide them with that support.”
Nolasco started out his career path simply by helping out in the softball press box at New Mexico Highlands, then gradually earned more and more responsibilities as a student and then recent graduate. He eventually worked in sports information and gameday operations at the university, before starting his teaching career with an eye towards becoming an AD.
He then spent two years teaching at his alma mater, Salesian, before taking on his first AD role at St. Vincent.
Most recently, Nolasco oversaw a successful and tumultuous time at Don Bosco Tech, helping bring the athletic program back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At that time, the athletic department was not in a healthy state,” Nolasco admits. “So I knew what I was getting myself into. But I said to the coaches, ‘Hey, give us some time. It’s going to work. My job is to put you and your program in the best position to have success.’”
During his first full athletic season at Don Bosco, the football program won its first league title in almost 20 years, and other programs soon followed. The volleyball program won consecutive league titles, and the basketball program made the biggest splash of all, winning the 2023 CIF-SS Division 5AA championship. The Tigers then made it back to the CIF-SS title game this past season, and made an appearance in the CIF State SoCal Regional Finals.
Now making the transition to St. Anthony, Nolasco said he was familiar with the Saints’ athletic successes from his time as a student-athlete and from his time working at Salesian. He’s excited to help continue that tradition while highlighting student-athlete success on the field and in the classroom.
One point of emphasis will be on social media, where Nolasco made a concerted effort to share his teams’ successes while at Don Bosco Tech, and he’s looking to build off the existing platforms that St. Anthony has cultivated over the years.
“I believe it’s essential for any business, any organization, to have a good, strong social media presence,” said Nolasco. “To provide support to the entire athletic department celebrating student athletes success, and that’s from them earning All-League honors to a team having above a 3.0 GPA, celebrating that success as well.”
