TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0When you\u2019ve coached as long as Joe Fenlon, you start to wonder if you are really making a difference.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Prep boys basketball head coach got that answer in a big way when he reached a huge milestone.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
\u00a0Joe Fenlon has been the head coach of the boys basketball team at Tampa Prep since 1983
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\u00a0He recently reached the 900th win milestone. No high school coach has won more basketball games in Florida than Fenlon
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\u00a0His Tampa Prep Terrapins win a lot. They’ve advanced to nine Final Fours and won a state championship in 2012<\/p>\n
When his Terrapins team defeated Jefferson, it marked win number 900 for Fenlon. And it provided some clarity on his chosen profession.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I\u2019m doing something right when you look into the stands today and you see some of these kids that I have not seen in years,\u201d Fenlon said.<\/p>\n
Since 1983, Fenlon has led the Tampa Prep boys basketball team. This team wins a lot. They won it all in 2012. The Terrapins have advanced to nine Final Fours.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not the victories that keeps Fenlon coming back for more. It\u2019s the impact he has on his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a higher purpose than self, like it\u2019s the school\u2019s mission,\u201d said Anddrikk Frazier, Tampa Prep Class of 1994. \u201cAnd I think that not only does he exude that, but he breeds it. And you can tell by the performance of the team tonight and the amount of guys who came back to show their appreciation and their love for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stands were packed with current Tampa Prep students and former Terrapins players. They were all there to celebrate Fenlon\u2019s big moment. But in typical Fenlon fashion, he didn\u2019t want the moment to be about himself. He wanted it to be about the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach given year, kids just bought into, ‘If your loyal, if you\u2019re true to yourself and each other, then special and good things could happen,’\u201d Fenlon said.<\/p>\n
He can deflect praise, but he can\u2019t deny his status as one of the state\u2019s greatest of all time. No high school coach has won more basketball games in the state of Florida than Fenlon. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s in the FHSAA Hall of Fame. And as far as he\u2019s concerned, courtside with his Tampa Prep Terrapins is exactly where he is supposed to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really lucky,\u201d Fenlon said. \u201cI\u2019m lucky that I have an opportunity every day to come to work and work with some with some great kids. I\u2019m just very fortunate, very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0When you\u2019ve coached as long as Joe Fenlon, you start to wonder if you are really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1747,1238,1236,3745,13013,115,110,135,137,136,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-152281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-high-school-sports","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-florida-sports","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-katherine-smith","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tampa","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}