Friday in VarsityXtra
Bill Sacco coached in seven decades, for three schools, en route to 484 career victories
A Q&A with longtime high school basketball coach Bill Sacco, who has announced his retirement at Cornell.
The way Bill Sacco sees it, the good high school basketball coaches wear many hats.
“I was a coach, fundraiser, psychologist and even parent,” Sacco said.
Now, he can put on the retirement hat.
Sacco, 77, has decided to retire as Cornell’s boys coach and you’ll be hard-pressed to come up with many coaches in WPIAL history with a tenure like Sacco’s. He coached in seven decades, including six as a head coach at three different schools.
Sacco started in 1966 as an assistant at Moon High School. He eventually had two stints as Moon’s head coach (1976-81 and 1987-93) and also coached West Allegheny’s girls from 1997-2002. He was Cornell’s boys coach from 2002 through this past season, when Cornell made it to the WPIAL Class 1A championship. Cornell also won two PIAA playoff games to qualify for the quarterfinals before the season was stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 34 years as a head coach, Sacco had a 484-376 record and affected countless teenagers, including University of Kentucky coach John Calipari, who played for Sacco at Moon in the 1970s and still remains in contact with his old coach.
Sacco, a man who was never lacking for a good one liner, and his wife, Lahna, have two boys and five grandchildren. Sacco will still be Cornell’s athletic director.
Q: Did you plan on retiring at the end of this season or did you just decide recently?
A: Three or four years ago, I started thinking about it, but held back. I still feel OK, but I’m older. I figured, what’s the best time to go — when you’re getting slammed or when you’re on top? I think going out on top is better. But I’m still the athletic director. I can always fire the new coach if I want to come back. People who say to me, ‘Why are you giving it up?’ I tell them, ‘Because the athletic director is on my butt every day.’
Q: What do you think you’ll miss most?
A: I just think all of the coaches and all of the staffs I was involved with. When I first started coaching, opposing coaches didn’t like each other very much and I could never understand that. It was kind of crazy. Now, everyone is pretty congenial. I like that aspect. And my coaches are like family. All the coaches I had are great people. The coaches I had with me at Cornell (Fran Petraglia and Jeff Stuart) were with me for all 18 years.
Q: Have you heard from Calipari yet?
A: I called him to tell him I was retiring, just so he didn’t hear it from someone else. I wanted to tell him because he does so many things for people, especially me. Not in terms of gifts, either. Just in terms of always calling, or when he’s in Pittsburgh stopping to see me. When he comes here, we go eat Italian food.
Q: Do you think most people don’t know what John Calipari is like?
A: Definitely they don’t. Just the fact of how bright and smart he is. People don’t realize that.
He’s such a family man, too, and no one would believe how religious of a person he is. When he goes to New York sometimes, he’ll go to St. Patrick Cathedral and then call me and tell me he lit a candle for me.
Q: What is something you can do now that you’re not coaching basketball?
A: Go see my grandsons play. One is in fifth grade and the other is in 10th grade at Moon. I never get a chance to see them play. I never get a chance to work with them. I need to do that. I think I can show them ways to be successful. I have three grandchildren in Switzerland, too. If they ever come back, I’ll spend time with them.
Q: What does Bill Sacco do for fun outside of basketball?
A: I have an older car that I work on a lot and I try to make my wife laugh a lot. She does laugh, and that’s probably the only reason she’s still with me (laugh). We’ve been married 55 years. I met her at a Coraopolis Little League baseball game. We’ve kind of been together
since we were 12 years old.
Q: What is this old car you work on?
A: It’s a 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible. We sometimes drive around like two old people. We put the roof down, but turn the heater on (laugh).
Q: Something you’d change in WPIAL basketball?
A: I still would like to see the separation of church and state, meaning the Catholic, private and charter schools on one side and the public schools on the other. Think of how many times we had to play private or Catholic schools in the playoffs. It’s a problem. They’re able to bring people in from anywhere. I can’t. They manage — and I coach. That’s the difference.
Q: Why are you staying on as athletic director?
A: To keep a relationship with this district and the kids who are here. I think I should stay because I can still help them. When I can’t help them anymore, it will be time. But I think I can affect more kids than just the ones playing basketball.
Q: Best high school player you saw in person?
A: The best shooter I ever saw had to be Tommy Richards at Moon when I was an assistant there. You see him every day in practice. He could just drill it. Stan Sligh from Hopewell, too, years ago. There were a couple kids from
Lincoln Park — the Maverick Rowan kid. For me, I had Keith Tower at Moon one year and he went to Notre Dame. I also had Dax Cosby and he played for Robert Morris. Those two and Calipari were the only three Division I guys I coached. Cal went to North Carolina-Wilmington before he went to Clarion.
Q: Best high school team you ever saw?
A: That (1967) Ambridge team with (Dick) DeVenzio and (Dennis) Wuycik. They were really good. But their shorts were too short.