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By
Rick Carpiniello Journal News Columnist
• February 21, 2008
 MOUNT
VERNON - After the ceremony celebrating his 300th career coaching
victory, after the proclamation by mayor Clinton Young at center court,
Bob Cimmino closed the door to the Mount Vernon boys locker room.
And here's what he told his Knights,
who had just beaten Suffern 87-51 in the Class AA quarterfinals:
"I'm glad this nonsense is over,''
Cimmino said. "Thank you for listening and putting up with it. And you
know it means absolutely nothing unless we get 301 and 302.''
Every one of his players looked him in
the eye and nodded.
"They knew,'' Cimmino said.
As nice a round number as 300 is, and
it is, Cimmino measures success by a gold standard. A gold ball
standard. So with the win yesterday, the Knights go to the County
Center, for the sectional final four, for the 14th time in his 14
seasons, looking to add a ninth gold ball.
The Knights have played in nine
consecutive championship games, 10 overall (8-2) under Cimmino, and they
have gone on to win four state titles and three Federation
championships.
But this is about 300.
The 300 mark isn't so magical in high
school basketball, not on its own. Jack Curran has the state record with
nearly 900, but nobody's close to that. Two Section 1 coaches - John
Volpe, who is still active, and Mike DelVal - have each topped 500 wins.
Peekskill's Hall of Fame coach, Lou Panzanaro, got his 483rd win Tuesday
night.
But it's doubtful that anybody in
Section 1 history, and very few in the state if any, have won 300 games
in their first 14 seasons! That's 21.4 wins per year (he has only 54
losses, or 3.9 per year)! And it's not like Cimmino loads up on
cupcakes. Mount Vernon plays its league schedule and the Yonkers teams
during the regular season, but its non-league schedule is packed with
national and New York City powers, all of them on the road. Then come
state tournament games. Oh, and yesterday's was Mount Vernon's 96th
consecutive home win, going back to 1998.
"Many take 25 and 30 years to
accomplish what Coach Cimmino has in a short 14,'' Mount Vernon athletic
director Donna Pirro said. "It is nothing short of amazing.''
But enough about the number, because
to Cimmino it is only a number.
"It's just kind of a summation of all
the great players who have come through here, who I've been so fortunate
to be with through the years,'' he said. "It's hard work. There's a lot
of hard work involved and the kids have bought into it, and it
translates into success on the court and off the court as well. I'm
humbled to be part of it.''
He was humbled and proud of all the
alumni in the stands, because, well, Cimmino is nothing if not close to
the players. Yeah, yeah, people squawk that "anybody could coach that
talent - blah, blah, blah.'' And they mock the number of assistant
coaches on his bench, a group he calls "the best in the nation'' and
cites the "individualized attention'' they afford his players, not to
mention the professional role models.
One of his younger assistants is Bryan
Browne, 24, who under Cimmino was the first player to ever win four gold
balls.
"People don't know about coach is that
he's like a dad to all the players, from Garee (Bryant, the JV coach),
one of his first players, to (senior) Kevin Jones now and (freshman)
Jabarie Hinds. He's like a father to every single one of us,'' Browne
said. "Everyone calls him, just to get some good information from him,
and to make sure we're doing the right things.
"He just keeps up with every single
player. He knows about every single player he's ever coached, knows
what's going on with their lives and everything.''
Sure does. Cimmino gets to know kids
when they're 10 or so, in the Junior Knights program that ultimately
feeds the varsity machine. He did it with Browne, with Jones.
"He always makes it his business to go
down to Junior Knights games to see all the new kids coming up,'' Jones
said.
"They see him as a big figure in Mount
Vernon for the younger kids, a role model for the little kids,'' senior
Ketema Brooks added.
That's why Pirro pointed out that, not
only has Cimmino sent 12 players to Division 1 college ball and one (Ben
Gordon) to the NBA, but he's had nearly 100 percent of his seniors
graduate and go on to college (about 80 percent of whom played
basketball in college).
"He is viewed as, every parent wants
him around their kids' life,'' Browne said. "My mom said just a few days
ago, 'Your little brother's about to go to the high school and now Coach
Cimmino's probably going to be able to take care of him.' Every parent
knows that he is a great influence to all the kids, every single kid.
The community loves him.''
And he does right by the kids in
little ways, too. Like the way he passed the torch in Michael Coburn's
last playoff game last season. Coburn had been on the team since eighth
grade, so when he was removed from the game, Hinds, an eighth-grader,
replaced him. This week, Cimmino has his eighth-graders practicing with
the varsity, to see how hard Jones and Brooks work, which will pay
dividends down the road.
The numbers are nice, and there are
more coming. Cimmino has no plans to leave any time soon.
"I was with a group of coaches the
other night and I was listening to them, and some of them were around a
little longer than me, and they said, 'When November comes, if you're as
anxious as ever, then it's good to stay.' And every November, Garee
Bryant, my JV coach who was my first scholarship player, he sees the
transformation in me, and he says something like, 'Oh, yeah, you're
ready' or 'I know that face.' The different players bring renewed
enthusiasm, and I feed off that.''
Maybe 300 is just a start.
Reach Rick Carpiniello at
rcarpini@lohud.com and read his
blog at
www.lohud.com/blogs. |
