Ron Mancasola was born in Weed, CA on June 21st, 1936 to Al Mancasola and Carrie (Mancasola) Methvin. He was a member of the first graduating class of Sequoia Middle School, at which time he served as bat boy for the Redding Browns, the local minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Browns.
Ron graduated from Shasta High School in 1954, after which he attended Shasta College before enrolling in the University of San Francisco on a baseball scholarship. While at USF he became a walk-on member of the basketball team that held the longest winning streak in NCAA history going on to play against Wilt Chamberlain during a 1957 Final Four game. After college, he had a short stint playing professional baseball in the Minor Leagues. He was selected in the inaugural group of athletes for the Shasta College Hall of Fame for both baseball and basketball. After returning to Redding, Ron continued his baseball career on the Redding Tigers, a semi-pro baseball team.
In the mid-1960s, Ron owned and operated Northern Beverage Distributing Company, a Redding-based beer, wine, and soda pop distributor. In 1973, he and his brothers took over the family grocery business, which his father had owned in partnership with Leo Audia, the father of Ron's life-long friend, Joe Audia. Farmers Market, which eventually became Sentry Market, was a big part of the greater Redding area landscape and was once touted to be the largest grocery store chain north of Sacramento. At its peak, Sentry Market had 9 locations in California and Oregon (ReddingRecord).
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