Best High School BB Coach Ever in the State of Connecticut | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Best High School BB Coach Ever in the State of Connecticut

Delrayhoops said:
Ralph King, my coach at Brien McMahon
Vito
Bentley
Salisbury
Ray Berry at Norwalk
Walsh at Trinity
Need help with the name of Hillhouse`s coach in the 70-80`s.
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I went to McMahon after king retired but people still talked about his greatness.
 
I was fortunate to be mentored by former Greenwich High coach John Czarnecki and Choate coach Jim Irzyk during my early years of coaching basketball. About a decade ago, Irzyk was brought in as my school's AD and a few years after that Czarnecki was hired as our "director of basketball operations" for a few years.

It was the early years of the development of the athletics program at my school. At the time, I was in my mid-20s and had no idea what I was doing with coaching but both were mentors and like father figures to me (both guys are about my dad's age and like my dad, 100% Polish). Great guys to work with, they both taught me a lot and both are hilarious guys.

They've both moved on to other schools, but their basketball impact on me is huge.
 
Horatio said:
Coach Vitolo coached Hillhouse in the 80’s. He definitely won a championship in 1985 and also went undefeated that year. Tharon Mayes was on that team. That team was a complete beast.
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Championship in '86, they beat McMahon.
 
Fairfield_1st said:
John isn't even the best coach in Cromwell history. Jake Salafia is. 24 consecutive tournament appearances in his 25 year career, including 11 finals appearances and 7 titles.
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I remember talking to Mike Savage and John Fontana about CT high school coaches many years ago. They thought the coach that got the most out of his talent and was arguably one of the best high school coaches ever happened to be Herb Neuhauser. Neuhauser coached at the smallest high school in the state. If not mistaken it was East Granby High School. The smallest boys enrollment in the state.

According to these legends in 1970 or thereabout East Granby met Cromwell in the state tournament when Jake Salafia had Weston. Cromwell won five titles from 1967-71. If odds could be put on a high school game Cromwell would have been favored by 20+. Cromwell was a powerhouse that year. Neuhauser according to sources studied the tendencies of Weston/Byrd to such a degree that Weston was held scoreless at the half and Byrd had four points. The late Mel Kleckner coach @ East Windsor in the 70's (then on to UConn) once told Bohdan K. of the Hartford Courant that Salafia has nightmares about that game to this day. Cromwell had five guys that went on to major colleges. Not only did they have a Soph Weston but also the twins Dave/Ed Dlugolenski and Keith Byrd. East Granby led for most of the game until the final few minutes when their best player sprained his ankle. Clay Young (who went on the play briefly at University of Hartford) had guarded Weston most of the game and was injured with a few minutes left in the game. Weston scored the final two baskets of the game to ice it for Cromwell. This could have gone down as the biggest upset in CT high school basketball history. One of the biggest anyways.

Cromwell went on to beat Wamogo by thirty-two points in the championship game.

Sometimes it is hard to gauge who is the best based on state titles and wins at the high school level. So many decisions such as quality of life come into play when contemplating a move at the high school level.

I played against all the talented South Catholic teams with Doug McCrory and Mike Thomas when I was in high school. Reilly was a great coach blessed with great talent coming through the doors at South Catholic. As an example Mike was talented and left Enfield to play @ South ect ect...South recruited the best.
 
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BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
I played against all the talented South Catholic teams with Doug McCrory and Mike Thomas when I was in high school. Reilly was a great coach blessed with great talent coming through the doors at South Catholic. As an example Mike was talented and left Enfield to play @ South ect ect...South recruited the best.
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McCrory and Thomas were when I was there. I think Mike Thomas was 2 years older, McCrory 1 year older. My junior year, McCrory's team took on Charles Smith of Knicks fame in the state tourney title game against Warren Harding.

Thomas was a smaller leftie guard with a smooth stroke. He may have been pretty high up on the schools scoring list, if I recall.

McCrory was a slashing swing 3/4. He was the first guy that regularly dunked around (thankfully never on) me in open gym nights.
 
olehead said:
Championship in '86, they beat McMahon.
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yep, 85-86 season. Hillhouse went undefeated in basketball and football that year. What’s funny is I was college roommates with two of the guys on that McMahon team. That was a great team.
 
Horatio said:
yep, 85-86 season. Hillhouse went undefeated in basketball and football that year. What’s funny is I was college roommates with two of the guys on that McMahon team. That was a great team.
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I was cool with Rodney Smith. He was a 6'3" PF, who put in work for Coach King. Quietly, they had a kid on McMahon by the name of Keith Thompson who was a scoring machine. He might have been the most dominant offensively in Southern Ct. Nicknamed Fruity, he was 5'9", dunked with ease and gave you buckets from everywhere.
 
Deepster said:
McCrory and Thomas were when I was there. I think Mike Thomas was 2 years older, McCrory 1 year older. My junior year, McCrory's team took on Charles Smith of Knicks fame in the state tourney title game against Warren Harding.

Thomas was a smaller leftie guard with a smooth stroke. He may have been pretty high up on the schools scoring list, if I recall.

McCrory was a slashing swing 3/4. He was the first guy that regularly dunked around (thankfully never on) me in open gym nights.
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I saw Thomas and McCrory play for South against Aquinas when I was well past high school, I think 82. We had to stand on the floor because the place was packed. Great environment for basketball. Josh Farrell was playing for Aquinas. Thomas was hard to miss. South Catholic played multiple times against Warren Harding in the state finals, winning some and losing some.


www.nhregister.com

Year-by-Year Register Boys' Basketball All-State Teams

www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com
 
Deepster said:
I went to South Catholic as well. Joe Reilly was my gym coach. Day 1, he handed out hockey sticks and I thought "Cool. We're going to play hockey." Nope. We used them as rifles as he taught us to march and do thinks like "Present....arms", "Right shoulder.....arms".

Another day he challenged anyone in the class to a push up contest. A couple of the football players took him up on it and, at maybe 60, he embarrassed them both.
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Joe Reilly used to have us play his version of football ( razzle dazzle or some other name). You could throw a forward pass anytime you wanted to and catch the football off the stands or partition that separated the boys side of the gym with the girls. Joe used to take the guys like me who were picked last since I was about 5'2'' at the time and looked 12. His teams often won.

He did introduce us to street hockey. Which was good for me, since I was better than a lot of the jocks. In fact, my name is on the inaugural "Tea Cup" given to the champion intramural street hockey team.

Good dude, tough but fair.
 
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olehead said:
I was gonna list Berry from Norwalk. Had a great run in the 80's. Played with and against those guys. In the 80's S. Norwalk was a hotbed for basketball talent. Guys simply couldn't get out of their own way toward D1 scholarships, but certainly plenty of D1 talent for Norwalk high and McMahon.
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Roodner Court is the mecca of Norwalk basketball.
 
Delrayhoops said:
I was a freshman 12th man on that McMahon team. I played a few minutes in garbage time. We didn't know what hit us.
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The House had a lot of athletes that year plus Tharon. That was a great team by any measure.
 
Boys Basketball - Vito Montelli - St. Joe's

Girls Basketball - Dave Strong- Masuk 704 career wins. Did it with an average sized public school.
 
huskyblooz said:
I don't pick Catholic school coaches. Walsh didn't win until he got kids from NY coming in on the train. I'm an FCIAC guy and I think King and Barry were fantastic, as was Usher. Bentley did great things at Harding (some of it in the FCIAC). Currently, I love watching Joel Geriak's teams at Wilton HS.
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I hear you, but I used to hear schools like New Canaan and the Stamford schools somehow end up with a NY kid loosely tied to their respective catchments .. all the way through basketball season.
 
M.S.G. said:
I do think there's something to this. Says a lot when you just win with who ya got.. However, I played against his teams in high school when they were state championship level good - and then coached against him when he was on his way out the door & then the odd duck run @ Tourtellotte. While the win total is remarkable, he won many of those games playing a very weak QVC schedule, and then feasting on tech schools. 609 is 609 whatever way you slice it, but he'll never be revered as many others in this thread.

Oh, and course I nominate myself.
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Coach, who were you coach for and when?
 
olehead said:
I hear you, but I used to hear schools like New Canaan and the Stamford schools somehow end up with a NY kid loosely tied to their respective catchments .. all the way through basketball season.
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Yup. This happens all the time but in fairness to the good catholic school programs and the good public school programs a lot of these kids weren't really "recruited" like everyone claims. I knew kids from Hartford and Bloomfield that found an address to play at Windsor High for example and I know of future D1 players that played at a catholic school and the coach didn't even know they were coming until they enrolled.
 
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Fairfield_1st said:
Both great guys. I see Don around town frequently. Played a mean men's slow pitch softball as well. Just a great athlete. Played at PC and was pictured in SI covering Dr J.
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I saw him playing around 1990. He was with an old friend of mine and they were ringers for Iffland Lumber's team. I saw him playing baseball and basketball in hs, as he played against my friends at Portland.
 
HCCForever said:
Joe Reilly used to have us play his version of football ( razzle dazzle or some other name). You could throw a forward pass anytime you wanted to and catch the football off the stands or partition that separated the boys side of the gym with the girls. Joe used to take the guys like me who were picked last since I was about 5'2'' at the time and looked 12. His teams often won.
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I played that and I think it was razzle dazzle! That's funny you remember that too. Good times.
 
olehead said:
I hear you, but I used to hear schools like New Canaan and the Stamford schools somehow end up with a NY kid loosely tied to their respective catchments .. all the way through basketball season.
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kjnn
WHAT are you talking about ? Who lived in NY and played at New Canaan ?? The COACH who followed Don Usher's retirement came from NY Cath. Lg. power Arch. Bishop Stepinac in White Plains but no players
 
I have to submit Wally Camp. There is no such thing as best basketball coach in CT ever as there are so many variables. This is basically an opinion thread. No attack on the OP...
I refer to Wally because he kept a small cow town team relevant in the shoreline conference for years. Won a
state championship and is in the CT high school coaches hall of fame with over 500 wins.

He was a coach and understood that is just another word for teacher. Great man, teacher and coach, deserves to be in the conversation.

www.ctsportswriters.com

Gold Key winner Wally Camp of Coginchaug dies at the age of 87

Wally Camp, the long-time basketball coach and athletic director at Coginchaug Regional in Durham, died on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at the age of 87. Camp was awarded a Gold Key by the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance in 1991. A graduate of West Haven High, Camp went to Southern Connecticut...
www.ctsportswriters.com www.ctsportswriters.com
Also undefeated against Jim Calhoun in his high school beginning. A running joke between them as Jim had a ton of respect for Wally and he showed it by speaking at a couple of the the schools award dinners. My first up close meeting and actually have a conversation with Jim was at Wally's invitation. I was in awe of JC at the time and enjoyed the conversation immensely. Wally introduced me to Jim as UConns most rabid fan, which was not a lie. Have 1990 season JC autographed poster over the cellar fire place.
 
Fairfield_1st said:
I'm a lifelong resident. Got Al Weston's autograph when he taught our gym class when I was in grammar school. So even as a 2nd grader I knew he was someone special.
My brother graduated in 1980. I remember looking in his yearbook and seeing they played and beat big basketball schools, like Holy Cross or Harding, that level.
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So you know that the best Middle School basketball coach of alltime was John Turro!
 
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Kurebeach5 said:
kjnn
WHAT are you talking about ? Who lived in NY and played at New Canaan ?? The COACH who followed Don Usher's retirement came from NY Cath. Lg. power Arch. Bishop Stepinac in White Plains but no players
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80's.
 
nadav said:
So you know that the best Middle School basketball coach of alltime was John Turro!
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He was my middle school social studies teacher. But at the time I was there, Al Holowesko was the boys' hoops coach.
 
Fairfield_1st said:
He was my middle school social studies teacher. But at the time I was there, Al Holowesko was the boys' hoops coach.
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I had Mr H for gym, he despised me. I had Mr Turro during the Dream Season, he was a huge fan.
 
8893 said:
www.ctinsider.com

Jeff Jacobs: Former St. Joseph coach Montelli tells tales of basketball and friendship in new book

The 88-year-old coaching legend, Kentucky’s John Calipari and sports writer Seth Davis...
www.ctinsider.com www.ctinsider.com
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My father played for Vito. So did my Godfather, and my Godfathers son! I used to go to the hoops camp at St. Joe’s that Vito ran - Metro Basketball Camp, I belive it was called. I have this book sitting on my dining room table. Really looking forward to reading it. Just have to finish the other books I’m working on.
 
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