LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Nancy Acerrio was nominated by her friend, Hawley Woods.

Ms. Acerrio isn't just a great coach, but an awesome human being.  She is willing to lend an ear or talk for hours about the old days.

"I played against Nancy when I attended a rival high school in the late 80's," said Woods. "Coach Acerrio remembers everyone she coached and many who she competed against.  We reminisce about those days, former players, and what they are doing now."

"I also love that Nancy has advocated for equality for women in sports," said Woods. "She represents several committees for CIF(California Interscholastic Federation). In fact this was her one caveat to retiring. She would leave the school and retire from coaching, but she still holds her potions on those boards.  Her fight for what is right makes her a champion on and off the field."

Below is an excerpt from the San Diego Union Tribune.

To say Ms. Acerrio is the sage of San Diego softball would be an understatement. She has been a matriarch for more than three decades, since landing her first teaching job at her school in 1985.

“I started coaching junior varsity basketball and just worked my way up,” said Acerrio, who serves as athletic director in addition to coaching softball. “I never thought things would end up like this...The love of the sport is what has kept me going.”

It’s not just her passion for the game that continues to fuel her, but the relationships she has built in establishing herself as a fixture in the community.

“There’s just such a family atmosphere around our program,” said Acerrio, who has also coached girls volleyball. “It’s really something to me when my former players’ kids are playing. How awesome is it to see that?”

One of those former players is Hilltop assistant coach Donna Mathews, who played for Ms. Acerrio on the Lancers JV softball squad in the mid-1980s.

“At first, she scares you to death as a young player,” Mathews said of Acerrio’s drill-sergeant-like discipline. “But after a while, you realize how much she cares about the players and the program. Anything they need, she’s there for them.” 

Ms. Mathews said there is a reason so many former players keep in touch with Ms. Acerrio.

“They know they can call her any time about anything,” Matthews said. “She’s been a huge influence on me as a person, teacher and coach,” Mathews said. “I’ve learned how to relate well to the players through her.”

Seeing former players join her in the coaching ranks is something that energizes Ms. Acerrio.

Ms. Acerrio, a native of Elmont, N.Y., arrived in San Diego in 1972. . She left New York, but she’s still a New Yorker.

“I’ve mellowed a bit over the years,” said Acerrio, who has been known to engage in an occasional dust-up with an umpire. “But we all know each other.”

Bucky Burgos, a Hilltop assistant, said young athletes want to play for Ms. Acerrio.

“She teaches the game the way it’s meant to be played, using the field as if it were a classroom,” Burgos said.  It’s been a key to her success. 

“I’ve always considered myself an educator first and a coach second,” Acerrio said. “I try to teach the girls life lessons so they’re not only good softball players, but good people.”