Ronald J. Torgalski is an American former

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

and

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach. He was most recently the head

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach for the University at Buffalo. During his nine seasons as coach of the Bulls, he has compiled an overall record of 182–296.

High school

For much of Torgalski's childhood, his father, Bob, was a coach and athletic director at Saint Francis High School in

Athol Springs, New York Athol Springs is a hamlet in the town of Hamburg in Erie County, New York, United States. Notable people The family of feminist activist Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn owned property in Athol Springs. Athol Springs is the birthplace of retire ...

. Between several different sports and schools, Bob's high school coaching career lasted for over 50 years. Torgalski played baseball,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at Nichols School in Buffalo. As a baseball player, he was variously named to the All-Catholic team, the All Niagara Frontier League team and Honorable Mention All- WNY. In his single season as a sophomore football player, he was named Honorable Mention All-Catholic. In 1985, Torgalski and teammate Christian Laettner led Nichols to a New York state basketball title in Class C. Torgalski was named

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

of the state tournament and Class C All-State. Torgalski graduated as the leading scorer in Nichols history (with 1,783 points) and was later inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame. In 1985 he was named to the All-WNY team by ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'' alongside Clifford Robinson.

College

Torgalski went on to play both baseball and basketball in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He majored in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and was a member of

Delta Upsilon Delta Upsilon (), commonly known as DU, is a collegiate men's fraternity founded on November 4, 1834 at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is the sixth-oldest, all-male, college Greek Letter Organizations#Greek letters, Greek-let ...

. As a basketball player, Torgalski scored more than 1,000 points and finished his career with the third-most assists of any Division III player in history at that point. He also helped Hamilton to championships in the ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments in 1986 and 1987. In 1989, he averaged 10.6 assists per game and was named to the All- ECAC first team. After college, Torgalski played professional basketball in Sweden for two seasons with the Monstreas Club, averaging 22 points and 9 assists per game.

Coaching career

Basketball

In 1991, Torgalski returned to Hamilton College as an assistant basketball coach. He served on the coaching staff for four seasons and helped Hamilton to a number one national ranking in the final polls in the 1990–91 season and a championship in the 1992 ECAC Men's Basketball Tournament. After the 1993–94 season, Torgalski left Hamilton to join Tim Cohane's staff as an assistant at the Division I level with the University at Buffalo. Torgalski remained on the staff for six seasons.

Baseball

In 2000, Buffalo resurrected its baseball program in Division I with Bill Breene as head coach. That year, Torgalski left the basketball program and joined the staff as an assistant baseball coach. In 2003, while an assistant coach, he received a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degree in education from

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

. After six years as an assistant coach, Torgalski was named the head coach in 2006. In 2013, he was named the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

Coach of the Year. Torgalski was the head coach of the baseball team until 2017 when the university chose to discontinue the program. Although Buffalo's was the lowest-funded baseball program in its conference at the time of its shuttering, Torgalski and his staff had several players selected in the Major League Baseball draft during his tenure as head coach.

Personal life

Torgalski's brother, Randie, similarly coached two sports at the NCAA level. He served simultaneously as the head

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and men's basketball coach at Elmira College. Another brother, Rick, played baseball at

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

for four years and served as team captain.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torgalski, Ron Living people American expatriate basketball people in Sweden American people of Polish descent Baseball players from Buffalo, New York Basketball players from Buffalo, New York Buffalo Bulls baseball coaches Buffalo Bulls men's basketball coaches Canisius University alumni Hamilton Continentals baseball coaches Hamilton Continentals baseball players Hamilton Continentals men's basketball players Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Baseball coaches from New York (state)