Career
From 1978 to 1994, Ballatore was the head coach of the men"s swimming and diving team at the University of California, Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles), where he coached his University of California, Los Angeles Bruins swimmers to an National Collegiate Athletic Association national championship in 1982. Nationally, however, his Bruins teams were perennial top-ten contenders in National Collegiate Athletic Association competition. His University of California, Los Angeles swimmers also compiled a 98 percent graduation rate.
A combination of Title IX compliance problems and the weak financial condition of the University of California, Los Angeles athletic department in the early 1990s forced University of California, Los Angeles to disband the Bruins men"s swimming program after the 1993-1994 season.
Ballatore became the head coach of the Brown Bears swimming team at Brown University from 1994 to 1995, and the Florida Gators swimming and diving team at the University of Florida from 1996 to 1999. Before University of California, Los Angeles, he coached the Lancers swim team of Pasadena City College from 1967 to 1978.
While leading the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins swimming program, Ballatore coached twenty-eight Olympians, including gold medalists Brian Goodell and Tom Jager. He also served as a coach for five Olympic swimming teams, including the United States team at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1988 Summer Olympics, the Peruvian team in 1968, the Ecuadorian team in 1972, and the Israeli team in 1976.
He was a graduate of Southern Illinois University, receiving a bachelor of science degree in 1962.
While he was an undergraduate, he received All-American honors competing in the backstroke for the Southern Illinois Salukis swimming team He later earned a master"s degree in educational psychology from Azusa Pacific University in 1975. He was inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009, and the University of California, Los Angeles Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
He died in Gainesville, Florida, after a long battle with cancer.
He was 71 years old.