‘Bagel’ LaGatta can close career at Valley Christian with pair of titles
Don’t call him Gabriel. even entice a response.
It is Bagel. Bagel LaGatta, the name he puts on all of his school papers. The name his 19-months older brother Vinnie gave him as a little kid because when Vinnie tried to say Gabriel it came out Bagel.
“My parents thought it was funny and it stuck with me my whole life,” he said.
He’s got a lot of game to go with the name. In two sports. At the same time.
The Chandler Valley Christian senior can close his high school career next week with state titles in two sports — golf and baseball.
Golf among the smaller schools in the Arizona Interscholastic Association is played in the spring.
LaGatta is ranked the No. 3 golfer in the state in Division III. He also has played every position but first base on the baseball team, which appears to have a lock on the No. 1 state tournament seed in 3A.
The state golf tournament is being held Monday and Tuesday at Sonoran Course at Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa. Valley Christian’s golf team is ranked No. 2 in Division III.
The state baseball tournament starts Saturday with the first-round of the 16team, single-elimination tournament.
Valley Christian is ranked No. 1 in 3A baseball with a 16-1 record.
“I mainly focused on golf,” Bagel said. “That was my main sport. If a game and match was played the same day, it was all golf. It started with the coaches. I want to thank my coaches.”
Golf coach Scott Longanecker and baseball coach Damon Gilliland made sure it would work out.
“When I brought it up to the golf coach, he was willing to allow me to play,” Bagel said. “He pushed me to play. I talked to the baseball coach and he said, ‘We would love to have you out there.’ So thanks goes to those guys.”
LaGatta has excelled swinging both a club and a bat.
A scratch golfer who mainly plays at Whirlwind Golf Club in Chandler, he placed first in the White Mountains Invitational and the Kingman Invitational. He was third at an invitational in Prescott.
In baseball, he’s hitting .500 with 14 RBIs. He’s driven in 11 runs in his last seven games.
“There are things in both swings I can take and use for both of them,” he said.
LaGatta’s easy-going nature, not to mention the name and support of all of the sports teams, makes him popular on campus.
“He is a great kid,” Longanecker said. “I have many other coaches, after observing him at matches, tell me how impressed they are with him as a person and a golfer. He is doing a great job balancing golf and baseball.”
It might not
He comes from a baseball family but decided just this year to play baseball after focusing on golf his first three years at Valley Christian. His dad is an assistant baseball coach at Valley Christian. His brother Vinnie starred at shortstop for four years at Valley Christian and now plays at Central Arizona College.
“He decided to come out this year and play baseball as a utility player and has excelled,” Gilliland said.
LaGatta played two years of tackle football in San Jose, California, before he was diagnosed with a cyst in his brain that is close to the optic nerve. Doctors told his parents then that he should stop playing football because a blow to the head could cause him to go blind.
He gave up football, and turned his passion to golf.
“I just go in for an MRI every two years to make sure it’s not growing,” LaGatta
said. “As long as it’s not growing, I’m OK. There is no pain. I’m fine.”
LaGatta’s family moved to Arizona from California when Bagel was in the eighth grade. He went from Valley Christian Middle School in San Jose to Valley Christian Junior High to start the eighth grade.
“I wasn’t called Bagel in the eighth grade year until the end of it when people got to know me,” he said. “I get quite a few comments on my name. It’s cool to have a name like that.”
Bagel uses that name for his reports on the school’s sports teams, as part of the new journalism course that is being taught by Valley Christian football coach Jake Petersen.
“Some information he probably won’t tell you is how much every kid at this school loves him,” Petersen said. “At every sporting event he attends, he is the biggest supporter. The kid’s energy and excitement are unmatched. He leads every cheer from the crowd and everyone feeds off his excitement.”
When his mom registered to start his freshman year at Valley Christian, there is a section for nickname. The school didn’t clearly define what it meant by nickname, Petersen said, so the registration defaults the nickname to the students’ preferred name.
So on all of the teachers’ rosters, he shows up at Bagel LaGatta.
Bagel’s chapter at Valley Christian can end in storybook fashion, state titles in two sports.
“That would be a pretty cool way to go out,” he said.