Pasadena City College mourns passing of former Athletic Director Tony Barbone

PASADENA - Former Pasadena City College athletic director Tony Barbone died today at age 71. He retired from PCC after serving the AD position for nine years from 2014-2022.

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Affectionately known as "Bones," Barbone was responsiible for PCC hiring full-time head coaches in baseball, softball, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross country and track and field, women's soccer, football and men's basketball. He also added the program's first eligibility technician position.

Barbone's work to upgrade PCC's home event facilities took shape with the addition of a brand new artificial turf surface and track at Robinson Stadium in 2019 as well as a complete refurbishing of the court floors in Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium. 

After steering the program through unchartered territory and a complete on-campus shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, Barbone and the Lancers teams returned to play in 2021-22 after having the entire 2020-21 season cancelled (Spring 2020 sports teams had their seasons cut short with no conference placings or regional/state playoffs).

In his final year as AD, PCC's women's volleyball team set a state record for most conference victories to earn an undefeated South Coast Conference title (18) and finished ranked #15 in the state. The football team captured ts first conference title in 20 years while earning a bid and then winning a bowl game for the first time in 13 years. The baseball team won the most games by a PCC squad since 1951 with 28 and was ranked #18 in the state. 

In 2018-19, Barbone managed a group of teams where half advanced to the postseason in women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's swimming, and women's badminton. Volleyball, badminton and baseball all earned SCC titles. 

In 2017-18, under Barbone's leadership in the division, PCC captured its second consecutive 3C2A state title in women's badminton and conference titles in badminton and women's volleyball and a men's swimming dual meet crown. Baseball, softball, volleyball, women's basketball all earned postseason playoff seeds and men's swimming had their highest finish at state since 1978 in sixth place. Lancers teams had five conference Players/Athletes of the Year in volleyball's Emily Leung, women's basketball's Alisa Shinn, Melissa Cienega in women's swimming, Samuel Jo in men's swimming, and Natalie Ong in badminton. 

In 2016-17, the Lancers baseball team won its first-ever South Coast title (first since 1972) while PCC baseball coach Pat McGee was named the prestigious SCC All Sports Men's Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 season. McGee was the first Lancers head coach of a men's sport to earn the honor. Four conference champion coaches were hired under Barbone's watch in McGee, football's Robert Tucker, badminton's Jen Ho, and volleyball's Mike Terrill. Successful women's soccer coach Terryn Soelberg also was hired during Barbone's tenure.

Barbone served a prominent run on the 3C2A Management Council as the state baseball representative. He was an executive board member in the California Community College Athletic Directors Association (CCCADA), a former president of the South Coast Conference (SCC), and also served as a president for the Southern California Football Association (SCFA) Central Conference.

Before coming to PCC, Barbone was the athletic director at El Camino College for five years from 2009-2013.  

Prior to becoming an administrator, Barbone was a legendary college baseball head coach whose coaching career spanned a quarter of a century. He spent 16 years as an 8-time conference champion coach at Azusa Pacific University, collecting 516 victories. At the prep level, he directed Azusa High to the CIF Southern Section 1-A title in 1983. He also was an assistant coach at Citrus College for two years before taking the APU job.

Later in his coaching career, he served as a coach in the Cape Cod League in 1990, then a hitting/bench coach in the minor leagues for the Texas Rangers in 1992 with the Butte Copper Kings. Barbone became a minor league manager of the Vermont Expos (a Montreal affliliate) for two seasons in 1998-1999. In 2000, he was a bench coach again in the Expos organization with the Harrisburg Senators.

Barbone capped his baseball coaching run at Concordia University from 2004-2007, including the school's first trip to the NAIA World Series in 2006. 

Three South Coast Conference head baseball coaches all played for Barbone in McGee, Rio Hondo's Mike Salazar and Mt. San Antonio's John Knott. 

In 2016, Barbone was inducted into the San Gabriel Valley Hall of Fame.

(Robert Lewis, Pasadena City College Athletics)