Gene Pingatore became the first boys basketball coach in Illinois to reach 1,000 wins Saturday, when the St. Joseph coach led the Chargers to an 81-71 win against St. Rita in the first round of the Catholic League playoffs in Westchester.
According to the National Federation of High Schools record book, Pingatore is the 15th boys coach nationally to reach the milestone.
Pingatore has won two state championships for St. Joseph, in 1999 and 2015. The players he has coached for the Chargers include McDonald’s All-Americans Isiah Thomas, Daryl Thomas and Deryl Cunningham and current NBA player Evan Turner.
Marshall girls coach Dorothy Gaters was the state’s first to 1,000 wins in basketball in 2014.
Bob Narang is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
St. Joseph head coach Gene Pingatore
St. Joseph boys basketball coach Gene Pingatore discusses his career as he closes in on his 1,000th win. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
St. Joseph boys basketball coach Gene Pingatore discusses his career as he closes in on his 1,000th win. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
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Boys basketball wins in Illinois
1,000: Gene Pingatore, St. Joseph 1969-present.
881: Steve Goers, Bardolph, Oswego, LaSalle-Peru, Harvard, Rockford Boylan 1988, 1973-2011.
826: Dick Van Scyoc, Armington, Washington, Peoria Manual 1950-94.
811: Arthur Trout, Centralia 1915-51.
792: Vergil Fletcher, Pana, Mount Pulaski, Collinsville, 1944-78.
Source: IHSA.org.
PINGATORE HIGHLIGHTS
1978: The Chargers had yet to win 20 games in a season until they broke though in a big way behind junior point guard Isiah Thomas. St. Joe lost the Class AA championship to Lockport to finish 31-2, but not before a classic quarterfinal win in its Assembly Hall debut. St. Joe beat Westinghouse 63-60, with Thomas scoring 26 and Warriors star Mark Aguirre going for 28. Pingatore later said this team created the "Frankenstein monster" of high expectations at the school.
1982: Led by McDonald’s All-American Daryl Thomas, who would score 20 points in Indiana’s 1987 NCAA championship win, the Chargers cruised through the regular season 24-1 and entered the playoffs ranked second in the state behind undefeated Quincy. St. Joe needed overtime to beat Palatine in a supersectional, then were routed 79-59 by unranked Marshall in a quarterfinal.
1986-87: Pingatore said these were his most talented teams, and they went 30-1 in 1986 and 28-3 in 1987. The 1986 team was by Tony Freeman, a 5-foot-7 giant. The 1987 squad featured five Division I players: Brian Molis (Colorado and NIU), Cliff Scales and Carl Hayes (both Nebraska), Terry Mister (Loyola Marymount) and Deryl Cunningham (Kansas State), a 1989 McDonald’s All-American who came off the bench in ’87. The teams finished no better than third in the state, though, losing to Romeoville in the ’86 quarterfinals and to Marcus Liberty-led King in the ’87 semifinals.
1999: This certainly was not Pingatore’s most talented group, but it was his biggest group of winners. Future Penn State guard Brandon Watkins led the way as the Chargers knocked off Thornridge in the supersectionals, future NBA first-rounders Darius Miles of East St. Louis and Leon Smith of King in the next two rounds and Warren in the Class AA championship to finish 32-1 for Pingatore’s first state title.
2005-07: Led by Evan Turner, the national player of the year at Ohio State and second pick in the NBA draft in 2010, and four-year Illinois starter Demetri McCamey, St. Joe went 81-9 in three seasons but never made it to state, falling to Proviso East twice in the sectionals and to Derrick Rose and Simeon in a 2007 supersectional.
2011: Pingatore and Dorothy Gaters, the Marshall girls coach whom Pingatore joined as the only Illinois basketball coaches with 1,000 wins, were chosen to coach the McDonald’s All-American games upon its return to Chicago for the first time since 1982. Among Pingatore’s players on the West squad, which lost 111-96, were Chicago’s Anthony Davis and Wayne Blackshear.
2015: Fiery junior center Nick Rakocevic and steady senior guards Jordan Ash and Glynn Watson gave Pingatore his second state championship and first in 16 years by dispatching do-it-all sophomore Jordan Goodwin and Belleville Althoff 67-63 in the Class 3A championship to finish 29-6. Rakocevic led the Chargers back to state as underdogs in 2016, finishing fourth with a 25-10 mark.
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