Time right for Bellarmine coach to step down
Schneider: `I've gone as hard as I can, as long as I can. I just need to tug on my jersey right now'
In Patrick Schneider's basketball program, Bellarmine players knew what to do if they needed a break.
They'd tug on their jerseys.
For 30 years, the coach didn't need a jersey tug himself.
Schneider gave everything he had to his program, everything he believed his players deserved from a coach, everything that made his school and community proud.
April 27, while addressing his team one last time, Schneider told his players the moment had come to tug on his jersey. It was time for Schneider to step aside, time to retire after 846 games and 534 victories, time to leave a San Jose program he led to 14 sectional and six league championships.
“What I told the guys in the classroom today is, `Guys, after 30 years I've gone as hard as I can, as long as I can. I just need to tug on my jersey right now,” Schneider said April 27.
“It was emotional in the classroom, for sure. I was just so touched that so many guys said they were so glad that they were able to play on my last team.”
Schneider, 61, was as thoughtful and eloquent as always while going down memory lane a few hours after the school's news release announcing that the coach was retiring from basketball but would continue as an educator in the Religious Studies department.
The Bells didn't always win under Schneider, but they were always prepared. They played smart, team ball that was a treat to watch when they were at their best, which was far more often than not.
The son of a coach, Schneider is a historian, tactician and romanticist when it comes to the
sport that has meant so much to his family. Schneider's father, the late Bernie Schneider, graduated from Archbishop Riordan and USF and had a long run coaching high school basketball in Marin County.
“One of the most beautiful things about the sport of basketball is how democratic it is,” Schneider said. “Football is so role definition and specific. Baseball, everybody has their turn at the plate. But there is just something free-flowing and beautiful about basketball. I treasured everything about my being in the sport and I am going to treasure, I hope, sitting back and being a great fan and supporter of not just the Bellarmine
team but games in the area.
“I have a bucket list of college places that I want to go see games. I remember seeing a game at The Palestra (in Philadelphia) with my dad back in the 1980s. I think that was the last iconic college game location I've been at.”
Schneider's own son, Noah, was on Bellarmine's varsity team this past season. Noah will be a senior in the fall.
“He's happy for me,” Schneider said. “He's focused on being a better player, like all the other returners. I'll be glad I'll get to be in the stands, just kind of enjoying things.”
Schneider leaves Bellarmine basketball as the West Catholic
Athletic League's all-time winningest coach, a distinction he said his own high school coach, Bob Drucker, held while coaching at St. Ignatius from 1966 to 1986.
As he reflected on his own coaching career, Schneider remembered that his first league game in 1992 was at St. Ignatius.
Drucker was in attendance that night.
“Bob came by and said, `Hey, Patrick, just remember, it's 10 guys in shorts and tank tops in the dead of winter,'” Schneider recalled. “Great advice.”
Before deciding to step down, Schneider connected with a friend and old rival, former St. Francis coach Steve Filios. Their teams had
epic battles through the years, but the men share a mutual respect for one another and the sport.
Schneider asked Filios how he knew it was time to move on.
“He said I asked myself every year, `Do I have the energy that's needed, that the players deserve?'
“As I reflected more, I don't,” Schneider added.
So next winter, for the first time in three decades, Bellarmine's basketball sideline will have a different coach in charge.
“The thing for me that I imagine will be the hardest looking ahead,” Schneider said, “is that internal clock that says, `Time to go to the gym for practice. It's November.'”