Placer pennant project creator, HOF contributor Blanca dies at 74

Placer Athletic Hall-of-Famer Alex Blanca, a lover of classic cars, community, family and all things Placer High School, died Friday after a battle with cancer, his family confirmed. He was 74. Blanca's death came 16 months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and just 12 days after the death of his wife, Kathy, who contracted COVID-19 and died Nov. 29. They were married for 54 years. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and growing up in Fremont, Blanca moved his family to Newcastle in 1977. He instantly became enamored with Placer High School as the hallowed grounds of Earl Crabbe Gymnasium reminded him of the layout at his alma mater, Washington High School. "He walked into that gym for the first game that winter, and his high school gym in Fremont was the same exact gym as Placer," Blanca's daughter, Stacey Waldman, said. "He knew right then and there, 'This is where I belong.' " Blanca was a workhorse of a running back at Washington under Jim Ingram, who succeeded Bill Walsh as the school's football coach before Blanca had an opportunity to play for "The Genius." But it was the personal values he learned from Ingram that would help him influence students at Placer years later. According to Blanca's Hall of Fame induction story in the Auburn Journal in 2018, former Placer basketball coach Jim Mallery once asked Blanca to coach the girls team even though he'd never played basketball. Mallery replied with, "Yes, but you're good with the kids." Blanca went on to coach seven years of freshman and JV girls basketball along with six years of freshman football. He was the freshman coach of current Placer varsity coach Joey Montoya. "He had a tremendous impact on my life," Montoya said. "When I got the job (coaching) Placer, he and I would routinely talk in season and at times out of season, and I always appreciated when he'd call me with thoughts and insights and reminders of things. He was just a guy that truly loved our program and loved Placer High School. He was kind of an inherited alumni." Blanca was inducted into the Placer Athletic Hall of Fame, not for his coaching duties but more for his contributions as a booster, fundraiser and honorary member of the Block P Society. He earned a green and gold Placer letterman's jacket and was the Grand Marshal of the homecoming parade one year. But his most revered accomplishment for the school was the undertaking of his pennant project inside Earl Crabbe Gym. "He was an outstanding contributor to the athletic heritage of Placer High School," said Placer Athletic Hall of Fame member and former teacher Bob Burge. "I just hope the pennants he created can be kept in the Earl Crabbe Gym following the building's remodel." Blanca researched every league, section and state championship Placer had ever won as far back as 1903 through Placer yearbooks and Auburn Journal and city library archives. Whatever pennants were missing from the Placer gym, Blanca handcrafted himself to reproduce those felt symbols of success, saying, "I consider a school gym as a place of identity and recognition of the community through the accomplishments of the athletes and staff. I love to see people's accomplishments recognized." Blanca owned Al's Metal Spinning Company, which produced items ranging from antique car parts to the moving eyelids for the animatronic characters in the Disneyland ride, "It's a Small World." His business was previously known as Al's Antique Auto Parts, where he won the National Street Rod Association Product of the Year Award in 1980. "His love, to many, was in cars, or at least his main love was, but he was so much more than those old custom cars he beloved so much," said Newcastle friend Steve Fossum. "He was the kind of man all good, honest, hard-working men wish to be as well as strive to be. Always there for anyone and everyone, at any time any of us needed him." Blanca was heavily involved in the Auburn community. He was a member of the Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, helping chair the Auburn Fourth of July Parade for several years. "He loved the community," Waldman said. "He was the kind of guy who would loan you a hundred bucks if you needed it and never expect it back. He felt like it was his duty if he felt like you needed it." Alex Blanca is survived by brothers Stanley and Ronnie, sisters Linda Ontiveros and Shirley Blanca, and daughters Stacey Waldman and Cori Blanca.