Pueblo High School basketball coaching legend Roland LaVetter dies at 82

Roland LaVetter, who coached Pueblo High School to back-to-back state basketball championships in 1977 and 1978, died Saturday in Tucson. He was 82.

LaVetter’s 1978 team went 28-0 and is often considered the leading boys high school basketball team in Tucson history. The ’78 team, led by future NBA All-Star guard Lafayette “Fat” Lever, was ranked No. 4 in the United States.

A Tucson native, LaVetter was educated in TUSD schools, including Sam Hughes Elementary, Mansfeld Junior High and Tucson High. He completed the circle at the University of Arizona, where he obtained his B.A. and Master’s degrees.

“Without a doubt, everything I learned — and not just in basketball, but in life — came from Pueblo and what Coach taught me,’’ Lever said in 1988. “The things he started there still carry over.”

LaVetter served for 28 years as a social studies teacher at Pueblo, Rincon and Catalina high schools. He was also a senior class and student council advisor and athletic administrator.

100322-tuc-spt-lavetter-p2 — Pueblo High School coach Roland LaVetter hugs guard Lafayette "Fat" Lever in the 1978 Arizona AAA basketball championship game in Tempe.
Jose Galvez, Arizona Daily Star 1978

After winning 19 games and capturing another region title in 1980, LaVetter chose to transfer within TUSD and teach/coach at Rincon, which was within a mile of his home. Rincon was at the start of an athletic rebuild.

“The idea of going out on top never occurred to me,” LaVetter said that spring. “That’s an ego thing. I’ve never been in coaching for an ego. I’ve been coaching because I love the idea.”

After he left his Rincon job, LaVetter was asked to return to Pueblo and coach the girls basketball team. The Warriors had won two games the previous year. It didn’t stop him. His first Pueblo girls basketball team, in 1991-92, went 0-20.

“I probably enjoyed that year as much as most,” he told the Star in 2019. “You only are fortunate enough to get a Fat Lever once in a lifetime, if at all. It’s always up to you to make the best of what you’ve got.”

Pueblo named its basketball facility the Roland LaVetter Gymnasium in 2019. The Warriors’ other gym is, fittingly, named after Lever.

LaVetter was inducted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.