NEW: St. John’s Foley Joins Elite Company With 800th Victory
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Bob Foley is one of two New England high school basketball coaches to accumulate 800 wins.
Bob Foley won his 800th career game in convincing fashion as his team drubbed Holy Name, 80-37. The 71-year-old bench boss, who became Massachusetts' all-time winningest high school basketball coach in 2005, has an overall record of 800-331.
“The 800 wins is great, but to me, more important is the 50 years that I’ve been able to have my health and the great kids I’ve been able to coach,” said Foley, St. John’s coach since 1980. “It’s not just 800 wins; it’s [331] losses. So, it’s about 1,130 games that I’ve coached on a varsity level.
“It’s been fun. The kids have been fun.”
How much longer will Foley coach? Stay tuned.
“I hope to do it for a few more years. Going year by year,” he said. “If the kids listen to me and I’m healthy, I’ll go as long as I can.”
Foley is the second New England coach to register 800 victories, along with Vito Montelli, who retired in 2012 after posting 878 wins at St. Joseph in Connecticut.
Foley’s 33-year tenure at St. John’s includes 594 victories and two state titles, the most recent in 2009. He is a member of the Massachusetts Basketball Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2000.
A 1963 alumnus of Holy Cross, where he played basketball for the Crusaders, Foley began his coaching career mere months graduating when he took the head job at Uxbridge as a 21-year-old. Following an 11-year stint at St. Peter-Marian, he landed at St. John’s, where after one year as assistant athletic director he served as the school’s AD from 1981-2010.
With Tuesday’s triumph, Foley’s Pioneers improved to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in Central Mass. Conference action.
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