He coached the Falcon basketball team from 1983 to 1998 and led the team to three state championships.

He has over 55 years of basketball experience as both a player and a coach.

Current head coach Russ May is a product of the Bogdonavich coaching tree and he is happy his mentor is being enshrined in the Cerritos Hall of Fame.

“He is gracious and thankful and a very proud Falcon. For me he is totally deserving and he has impacted so many lives on and off the court, ” May said.

Playing Days

Before trying his hand at coaching Bogdanovich was a pretty good basketball player in his own right.

He donned a San Pedro High School jersey and even made the All-Los Angeles City Basketball team in 1959.

“I played both baseball and basketball and I thought I was a better baseball player than basketball player. I only played basketball because my parents wouldn’t let me play football, ” he said.

He was also honored as San Pedro Athlete of the Year.

His most memorable moment in high school was recalling a game in the quarterfinals of the playoffs as his team squared off against Jefferson High School.

His team lost to Jefferson in the pre-season by 50 points.

“The coach brought in college players and everything to help us. We only had five or six players so I had to go all the way, ” he said.

As a result of the game Bogdanovich was contacted by legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden about a potential roster spot with the Bruins.

However, he had already committed to Long Beach State and admitted that the difficulty of transferring universities played into his decision to not pursue UCLA.

Coaching Days

Over his 15 years of coaching at Cerritos, Bogdanovich compiled an overall record of 411-91.

“I actually got a concept from Lute Olson. He would always recruit six guys a year, one guy for every position and then the best available. He always had six sophomores and six freshmen,” he explained.

Olson coached the Arizona Wildcats for 25 years.

He is responsible for 10 conference titles and three of the school’s five state championships.

The state titles were won in 1983, 1989 and 1992.

“The state titles were all very different, very satisfying. I had great players,” he said.

Although, Bogdanovich believes his best team was 1986.

“Tom Tolbert and Willie Joseph were on that team. We had a 29-3 record and we got upset at home [by LA Harbor] and the state championships were at Cerritos that year too,” he recalled.

For the state title in 1989 familiar face Russ May was on that team.

“I was lucky enough to play and coach with him and as a player he was an excellent strategist and always had [his players] prepared. We always felt confident with him because he was ready for any situation,” May said.

Bogdanovich has high praise for his former player.

“I’ve known May since he was in the tenth grade and we tried hard to recruit him to Cerritos. I think when he was at Cerritos we were something like 57-7 in the two year he was there.

“I wanted him to get the Cerritos head coaching job about three years before he actually got it,” he admitted.

Furthermore, May was an assistant coach under his adviser for four seasons. The Falcons won four straight conference titles during that span.

He even credits Bogdanovich for a lot of his coaching techniques to this day.

“Coach [Bogdanovich] was patient and a great teacher of the game. I owe much of my career to him and I learned how to develop a team, plan the season and how important good people are to your program,” May said.

Post-Coaching Days

Since retiring Bogdanovich has been keeping very busy.

He hosted multiple basketball clinics for young athletes interested in the game of basketball.

Due to his constant contributions to the community he was awarded the 2011 Trani Award.

The award honors recipient’s contribution to local athletics.

“When I was 16 or 17 years old I did a clinic at the San Pedro Boy’s Club and this little kid kept tugging on my shorts asking me to teach him how to dribble behind his back,” he said.

In 2011 that same kid nominated him for the San Pedro Sportswalk to the Waterfront.

He was enshrined in what is often characterized as “South Bay’s Hollywood Walk of Fame.”

“My plaque in the cement is about 12 feet away from John Wooden’s so that made me really excited. In the future people will be walking and see mines away from Wooden’s,” he said.

Furthermore, as a symbol of the magnitude of this honor, former USC and Los Angeles Ram quarterback Pat Haden was also a fellow honoree.

During retirement he has also admitted that he has traveled to schools where his former players have attended in order to ensure they are being treated properly and are in the right environment.

He also claims that he has stayed busy by investing in antique shops.

In order to find items to fix up he attends garage sales to find hidden collector’s items.

He currently owns two antique shops.

This honor ranks high on the list for Bogdanovich and in his mind the term Hall of Famer means, “It means that your name is going to be somewhere and somebody is going to look at it and they are going to look at your records and how you got there. Basically you are [cementing] your history.”