A Don of a New Era

A Don of a New Era

Luke Zuffelato Rewrites
Santa Barbara High’s Record Book

By Victor Bryant | March 7, 2024

To say that Santa Barbara High School has a rich basketball tradition is an understatement. NBA players such as Keith Wilkes, Don Ford, Victor Bartolome, and Roberto Nelson all played at Santa Barbara High. Many more have gone on to play Division 1 college basketball, and some have developed lucrative professional careers overseas.

When it comes to high school achievements, however, Luke Zuffelato may surpass them all. Just finishing up his junior year, he is on pace to rewrite the Dons’ basketball record book.

As a junior, Luke led Santa Barbara High to the CIF Southern Section Division 3A semifinals this season, and into the state tournament, where he tied his own school record with 46 points in an 85-81 first-round loss to the San Marcos Knights of the San Diego Section.

At 6’5″ with guard skills, Luke is a rare talent at the high school level who has evolved from a volume scorer early in his high school career to a floor general capable of carrying his team on both ends of the court. His rapid development in all areas of his game speaks to his incredible work ethic. A naturally gifted athlete, Zuffelato has embraced the rigorous monotony of perfecting his craft, and those countless hours of lonely practice are paying off big-time. 

On the weekend of January 27, 2024, Luke received a Division 1 scholarship offer from UC Santa Barbara’s men’s basketball head coach Joe Pasternack, in what may be the first of many offers, assuming Zuffelato continues his amazing performance on the court.

According to Luke’s father, Greg Zuffelato, who recently finished his first season as varsity head basketball coach at Santa Barbara High, Luke began developing his athletic skills at a very young age. “He had a love for sports from the get-go,” Greg recalled. “Whenever he had the opportunity, he would play or practice, and as a kid, it wasn’t always basketball. It was whatever sport he could play, and he wanted to play them all. His first word was ‘ball.’ ”

Early Years

The Zuffelato family lived in the Fresno area during Luke’s early years. His mother, Kim, who played professional volleyball for a time, is from the area, and Greg enjoyed a successful stint as head basketball coach at Caruthers High School for four seasons. 

Greg and Kim had previously lived in Santa Barbara while Kim was training for the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour, and the family decided to return here when Luke was in the 2nd grade. It was then, when he joined the Page Youth Center basketball league, that Luke really began honing in on the game. 

From that point forward, the hoop in the alley behind their house became his sanctuary. “He wore that hoop out,” Greg said. “We probably changed the net 10 times.” 

Greg started a club team for Luke and some of his local friends when his son was in the 3rd grade as a way to give the young boys more experience in the sport. That group then joined the Santa Barbara Magic basketball program, which had been started by current San Marcos High Junior Varsity coach Donovan Green when Luke was in the 4th grade. Greg served as an assistant coach with Green over the next three seasons. 

Many of those same youngsters Luke played with during that time share the court with him today. Some are Dons, such as Santa Barbara High point guard Tobin Shyrock and forward Finn Whipps, and others are rivals, including Donovan Green’s son Brody, who plays at San Marcos, and Joe Pasternack IV, the son of UCSB’s head coach. 

The Santa Barbara basketball community is a tightly knit group. Though fierce rivalries exist between high school teams, many of the competing players have played together since childhood and have been trained and mentored by men who now coach at the high school level. 

Legacy/Family

The Zuffelato family has a long and impressive history of gifted athletes and coaches. Luke’s mother, Kim, played beach volleyball professionally and later served as an assistant coach for Santa Barbara High’s indoor volleyball team, where Luke’s older sister, Emma, was a player. The duo was a part of a CIF-SS Division 6 Championship team in 2021.

The basketball legacy goes back to Luke’s grandfather, Bob Zuffelato, who was a respected assistant coach with a number of NBA teams including the Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Golden State Warriors. He was also the head coach of Boston College’s Division 1 basketball team that he led to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament in 1975.

Luke’s parents had met at Fresno Pacific University, where Greg played basketball and Kim played volleyball. Greg later transferred to Fresno State to continue his basketball career, but injuries cut his playing game short. 

However, Greg found success in coaching. He now has more than 25 years of experience coaching youth, high school, and collegiate basketball. From 1997 to 2000, he served as head coach at Santa Ynez High School, guiding the team to its first CIF playoff game in more than 10 years. During the 2000-2001 season, he was as an assistant coach with the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo men’s basketball team. As head coach of Caruthers High School from 2004 to 2008, the team finished his first season with a 14-0 league record, a league title, and a CIF Central Section semifinal appearance.

Father/Son Duo

Despite this notable family history, Greg was careful not to force the game on his son at an early age, allowing him to develop his interest organically. “For the most part when he was really young, I showed him a few things, but I was a rebounder,” Greg said. “I would get out there and just be a dad.”

It’s no secret that the father-son dynamic between a coach and a player can be challenging, and there are far more instances of dysfunction than overwhelming success. It’s a fine line between showing favoritism to your child and being too hard, which makes the noticeably healthy relationship between Greg and Luke all the more special.

“Over the years, I saw some really unfortunate situations with father-son coaching, so I always tried to be encouraging and keep that balance,” Greg said. “I try to pick my moments … because as a coach, and a dad, you can say things all the time, and then it just becomes white noise, so I try to be careful about what I say.”

A Village of Heroes and Mentors

There are many people in Luke’s basketball ecosystem who are invested in his continued success, most notably Greg’s staff at Santa Barbara High, including assistants Tyler Shyrock, Juan Villareal, and Chris Hantgin.

Shyrock runs Santa Barbara House of Hustle club basketball program, working with his wife, Tori, and Greg. Villareal, who has trained a long list of college and professional players, works closely with Luke on his individual skill set. Hantgin, who was the head varsity basketball coach at San Marcos High for several successful seasons, has been the architect of the Dons’ defense this season and has worked with Luke to develop his skill on that end of the court.

This emphasis on his all-around game has been critical to Luke’s growth as a player. “When I was younger in my career, I looked up to Steph Curry, because he could shoot it from everywhere, and I always wanted to have that ability to score whenever I needed,” Luke said. 

Curry’s influence on the current generation of young basketball players has revolutionized the game. His ability to shoot efficiently from three-point range and to stretch the defense well beyond the three-point arch are aspects that Luke has incorporated into his game during key moments this season. 

But Luke also recognizes the importance of broadening his skills. “As I’ve grown, Paul George has been a person that I look up to because he is big and he can handle the ball, pass the ball, shoot the ball, and play defense, so he is not just one-dimensional,” Luke said. 

High School Starter

By the time Luke reached high school, the hard work was beginning to pay dividends. Head coach at the time, Corey Adam made Luke a varsity starter as a freshman, and he was named All–Channel League First Team after averaging nearly 12 points per game.

The Dons struggled to a 12-14 overall record that year, and Luke took his lumps individually in certain matchups during that 2021-22 season as a 14-year-old playing primarily against 17- and 18-year-olds.

Greg, who was working as an assistant coach at Santa Barbara High when Luke entered high school, often points to early morning, late evening, and weekend shooting workouts that have given Luke and many other members of the team the edge and confidence to continue to grow as basketball players.

“When we set the school record for a game with 23 three-pointers, that was not a surprise,” Greg said after his team’s late-season victory over Ventura. “We shoot year-round. All of these guys. … Over the last three or four years, they have been in the gym constantly, and now it’s paying off in big moments.”

Luke definitely experienced a huge bump in production in his sophomore season. He averaged 23 points per game and had several huge performances, including 40 points in a victory over Buena High of Ventura, a team that reached the state championship game that season in Division 3. The Dons were knocked out of the CIF-SS 4AA playoffs during Luke’s sophomore season by a scrappy Gabrielino team. 

In the off-season, Greg was elevated from an assistant coach to varsity head coach in June 2023. “It is an honor to be a part of this storied program,” Greg said when his appointment was announced. “A tradition exists here at Santa Barbara High School — a tradition that is second to none.”

Junior Year Star

Luke’s junior season got off to a rough start as his best friend and Santa Barbara’s best defensive guard, Carter Battle, was lost to a season-ending knee injury about a month before the season began. It was a huge loss. 

Battle was an All–Channel League First Team selection as a sophomore and was poised for a spectacular junior season in his own right. His injury changed the dynamic of the team and put a much bigger burden on Luke and every other Santa Barbara player.

Luke was then tasked with guarding the other team’s best player on many occasions as well as serving as a primary scoring option.

“I love being the guy that people turn to to stop the other team’s best player,” Luke said. “Last year, it was more Carter because he is a great defender, and it helped me conserve my energy for offense, but this year, with Carter out, it’s leaned on me more, and I love the opportunity.”

One of the first benchmarks of Luke’s junior season was when the Dons matched up against Chatsworth High and Alijah Arenas, who is the son of former NBA superstar Gilbert Arenas and, according to various recruiting analysts, is perhaps the top sophomore basketball player in the United States.

The two staged an epic duel, with Luke scoring 41 points — including a school-record 10 three-pointers — and Arenas scoring 46 points. However, it was Luke who accomplished the ultimate goal, as Santa Barbara came away with a 99-78 victory in what was the epitome of a team win. 

In a game against Pacifica of Oxnard on January 17, Luke broke the Santa Barbara High single-game record for points scored with 46, surpassing Roberto Nelson’s record of 45 points from the Dons’ 2007 season.

On January 24, 2024, the Dons took a major step as a program by knocking off Central Coast powerhouse Oxnard 57-46. The Yellowjackets had not lost a game against a league opponent since Ventura beat them on January 25, 2019, a winning streak that spanned five seasons.

That victory allowed Santa Barbara to claim a share of the Channel League title. Luke scored 15 of his 21 points in the third quarter as Santa Barbara took control of the game.

In his very next game, against Ventura, Luke surpassed Bolden Brace’s Santa Barbara High record of 216 career three-pointers. Luke currently has 240 three-pointers. A record that Steph Curry would be proud of, especially since Luke has his entire senior season to add to it. “It means a lot. All of my hard work is paying off,” said Luke post-game. “It’s really amazing.”

(Brace led the best Dons team in recent memory in 2016. That group captured a CIF championship and finished with a 34-2 overall record. Brace went on to play at Northeastern University and professionally in Europe.) 

The Dons entered the playoffs with a 21-7 overall record and a 10-game winning streak.

After comfortable wins over Viewpoint of Calabasas and West Torrance in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Dons were matched up against the San Clemente Tritons in the CIF-SS Division 3A quarterfinals, a physically imposing team with impressive size across the board. 

The Tritons were among the favorites to win the state championship in Division 3, but in order to reach the state tournament, a team must reach the semifinals of CIF Southern Section. 

Entering the fourth quarter, San Clemente was in control of the game, holding a 53-40 lead, but Luke and his teammates refused to give up. Spurred on by a raucous home crowd, the Dons clawed back into the game.

The Dons were trailing 59-54 with 1:22 to play when Luke launched a three-pointer from several feet behind the line that swished through the net, cutting the Santa Barbara deficit to 59-57.

About a minute later, Luke connected on another three-pointer from even deeper that gave Santa Barbara its first lead since early in the first quarter, 60-59, sending the JR Richards Gymnasium crowd into a frenzy.

“As a three-point shooter, it is what I’ve worked for my whole life,” said Luke of his game-winning shot. “It was a confidence boost to see that all my hard work has paid off, and to be able to take that shot late in the game was special to me.”

It was a wonderful moment for the Santa Barbara basketball community, as players from Dos Pueblos and San Marcos were on the court celebrating with the Dons post-game.

Though the Dons fell short in their semifinal game at Bosco Tech in Rosemead with a score of 59-57, Luke continued his strong play with a game-high 34 points. There was no question he was the best player on the court, as he held Bosco Tech leading scorer Jaden Erami to 11 points as the primary defender against him.

In the first round of the state tournament, Luke saved perhaps his best performance for last, as he tied his own school record with 46 points. The Dons staged another incredible comeback to nearly knock off the San Marcos Knights from the San Diego section, but they ultimately fell short in an 85-81 loss. 

In that game, Luke passed Paul Johnson’s 1988 Santa Barbara High record for the most points in a single season with 885. He also finished the season with the highest points per game in program history with 27.7.

Luke worked on honing his defensive skills this season: “I love being the guy who people turn to to stop the other team’s best player.” | Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Looking to the Future

Luke will play for one of the prestigious AAU Shoe Circuit teams this spring and summer, likely Dream Vision or West Coast Elite, where he will be showcased in front of the top college coaches in the country every week. In the transfer portal era, where college coaches often recruit college players from other schools before high school prospects, his recruitment is just beginning.

According to Greg, when he and Luke met with UCSB’s coach Joe Pasternack and he offered Luke a scholarship, Pasternack told Luke, “This is the most important spring of your life.” Greg noted that he wasn’t even talking about club basketball; he was talking about skill development.

After taking about a week off, Luke will dive into his off-season training program.

“My ultimate goal is the NBA, or to make money playing basketball overseas or in the NBA,” Luke said. “On the college level, I am really looking for a great relationship with the staff and the coaches and the players.”

Not only is the future extremely bright for Luke, but the Santa Barbara High team is poised for a memorable run in the 2024-25 season with Battle set to return from injury and the addition of La’Monte Owens, a talented transfer from Indiana, who was unable to play this season due to CIF rules. The Dons also boast a bevy of talented underclassmen, including Owen Horn and Cayleb Miller, who are coming off standout freshman seasons.

The first state championship in program history appears to be an attainable goal. For Greg, who has had many successful coaching experiences, working with his son has been the best.

“It’s a joy,” Greg said after a game late in the 203-24 season. “I told my wife that I’m really going to need counseling after next season when Luke graduates. I love my team. I love coaching, but it’s really an amazing blessing to be able to coach him…. Not many players would be able to have their dad coaching and take it. 

“You can ask the staff; he’s the most coachable kid we got. He listens to everything, and that makes it really special.”