It\u2019s his signature move: shouting and pacing the bench, wearing his signature orange polo and blue pants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NY1 may have gone with him to an away game, but put Benjamin N. Cardozo High School coach Ron Naclerio in any high school gym, and he feels right at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shouting is his norm \u2014 but the stakes these days are unprecedented.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Nine hundred and seventy-three wins would make Ron Naclerio\u00a0the winningest high school basketball coach in all of New York state \u2014 and the winningest basketball coach in the city \u2014 at any level of the game
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The late Jack Curran, former coach at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, holds the record for the most wins in high school: 972
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Naclerio has coached thousands of kids over the years, some of whom went on to play in the NBA. Dozens of others are coaching high school, college and even the pros<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s starting to become a thing that \u2014 every day like, ‘Come on, get there already, get there already,\u2019\u201d Naclerio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There” is 973 wins, a number that would make him the winningest high school basketball coach in all of New York state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most wins in high school is Jack Curran, who I’m chasing, may he rest in peace,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cFifty-five years, 972 wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Win 973 would also make him the winningest basketball coach in the city \u2014 at any level of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most wins by an NBA coach: Red Holzman, 613,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cThe most wins by a college coach is Lou Carnesecca, 526.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the weight of 973 is made even heavier by the company he\u2019s in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost kind of scary,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cBecause I know the history of New York City basketball. New York City is the mecca of basketball, the mecca.”<\/p>\n
Naclerio grew up in Bayside, Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was raised in this house, I live in this house, and I’ll probably die in this house,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His entire house is a shrine to his basketball career. There are trophies everywhere \u2014 hundreds of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The walls of his childhood bedroom are filled with pictures of him playing and coaching; pictures of him as a teenager when he was a ballboy for the Knicks in the ’70s (he was there for both championship seasons); pictures of him as a student at Cardozo, playing basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got in there September of 1973, and I haven’t left,\u201d Naclerio said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But baseball was actually his better sport. So he did leave, briefly, to go play at St. John\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, until a few injuries ended his playing career and landed him back at the gym at Cardozo as an assistant coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six years later, it was his team to lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year was embarrassing,\u201d he said with a laugh. “I won one game and lost 21, oh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he turned things around by year two, and is now in year 45 at the helm \u2014 51 years total.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starting my second half-century,\u201d Naclerio\u00a0said. \u201cSecond half, that’s a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In those 51 years, he couldn\u2019t avoid the reality of basketball in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had 10 players shot and killed,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cTwo of them, they were playing with the streets. But eight of them? Wrong place, wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The majority of his trophies, however, carry with them happier memories of students who went on to find success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome played in the NBA, some are coaching,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cI have 12 coaching high school, I have 14 coaching college.\u201d<\/p>\n
One former player is now his assistant coach, whose own son played on the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very hard coach to deal with, but as you grow up, you always remember the ones that coached you hard in life,\u201d Tony Maminakis said.<\/p>\n
Another, Royal Ivey, is an associate head coach for the Houston Rockets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe makes more in meal money on the road than I will make the whole season coaching Cardozo,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cBut I’ve never done it for money. I’ve done it for love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Done it for love, at the expense of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been married,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cI was close once, and that person wanted me to marry her, not her and the Cardozo basketball team, which I could understand. ‘Do you take Cardozo basketball to be a lawfully wedded wife? I do.'”<\/p>\n
But nonetheless, it’s been a life filled with love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you, in the spring, are in the weight room with the kid, when you are in the spring, in the park with the kid to work on his ball handling, shooting, whatever it is. During the summer, when you reach into your pocket to put them in summer tournaments, when the kids don’t have money for the referee fee so you\u2019ve got to cover the referee fee, and then you do it in the fall,\u201d Naclerio said. \u201cYou realize the labor of love, boy, a lot of people have no idea that labor of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
So ask the thousands of students he\u2019s coached to just about 973 wins, and they\u2019ll tell you the only place he truly stands alone is at the top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s his signature move: shouting and pacing the bench, wearing his signature orange polo and blue pants.\u00a0 NY1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[203,11101,25,67,9,24,12,63,122,124,123,319,11102,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-102536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-queens-headlines","18":"tag-queens-news","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-stef-manisero","21":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}