There are teachers of basketball and there are teachers of men (and women). Wheeling’s Gene Ammirante is both.
The longtime leader of Bellaire High’s basketball program and current Wheeling Park assistant coach is a legend on the Ohio Valley hardwood.
From 1981 until his retirement in 2011, Ammirante’s Big Reds’ teams compiled a 421-204 record while capturing 14 OVAC championships, including one memorable run to the state Final Four.
Ammirante has been enshrined in both the OVAC and Ohio basketball halls of fame for his efforts. If that’s all that could to be said about Ammirante, it would be enough. It’s quite an impressive resume.
But with Coach A, the story doesn’t stop with basketball. It’s never been just about that round, orange ball.
Sure, there’s been a focus on success, but the wins and losses of life have been just as important, if not more than the ones earned on the basketball court. Coach A cares about his players, not just in furthering their basketball skills, but in how they develop as people.
It’s a mentality that Ammirante and his late-wife Pam lived with every day and one they passed down to their children, Jerry and Lindsay. That’s why, even after 30-plus years of success and a well-earned retirement from the working world, Ammirante still coaches basketball.
He also still finds time to run his “Saturdays With Coach A” basketball camp which reached its midway point this past weekend. Boys and girls from second through eighth grade are treated to a couple of hours each Saturday with Ammirante to learn about basketball, and yes, about life, too.
“It’s going well,” Ammirante said. “It’s something I’ve always enjoyed over the years and we looked forward to starting it up at Park a few years ago after all those decades in Bellaire.
“You do what you love and love what you do, right? It’s been good for me. I really enjoy working with the little ones.”
Joined by his son Jerry and Park head coach Michael Jebbia, along with some of the Patriots’ veteran players, Coach A works in lessons on life along with the fundamentals, scrimmages and fun. Each Saturday they spend 45 minutes on fundamentals, drilling pivoting, proper defense stance, starts and stops. Especially for the younger player, the coach wants to build the proper foundation before they develop any bad habits.
But Coach A also takes time to talk about things like teamwork, drug and alcohol prevention and lately, they’ve been hitting the anti-bullying message hard.
“You have a captive audience and it’s an opportunity to instruct,” Ammirante said. “I’ve always believed that basketball is really kind of small in the spectrum of their life. When you have an audience, give them something they can profit from, whether they become basketball players or not.”
They do listen and Coach A cares about his charges, but that’s not to say he’s always a big softy when it comes to instruction. He wants you to get better, and he’s not afraid to critique and ask you for more to make sure that you do.
“Why is it when I talk louder everyone starts to listen more,” Ammirante wondered aloud with a grin during one session of proper pivoting and moving the ball.
But this is the same Coach A who will incorporate a game of dodgeball or tag during camp to make sure that the kids are having fun, too.
It all started back when he and longtime St. Clairsville coach Kim Clifford started at Bellaire in 1981. The two coaches would take their children, young Jerry, along with the Clifford boys Justin and Ryan, to the Bellaire gym for a little work on Saturdays. Having played the night before it was hard to get an official practice in the following day, but opening the gym open for an impromptu shoot around? That was doable.
It didn’t take the kids in the surrounding neighborhood long to figure out the gym was open and people were inside playing ball. They started gravitating to the Guernsey Street facility on a weekly basis and Ammirante decided to put a flyer out in the district to invite kids to come in and play.
At one point, Ammirante recalls having more than 200 kids in the gym on a Saturday morning, and nearly four decades later, “Saturdays With Coach A” is nearly as synonymous with Ohio Valley basketball as the legendary coach himself.
It’s a team effort that makes “Saturdays With Coach A” such a success for area youth, and Ammirante appreciates all the help he gets in giving back. He also extends his thanks to Todd Kover from Belmont Savings Bank, the financial institution that helps out by providing the kids with t-shirts at the end of camp.
The location may have changed to across the river, but it’s the same quality instruction. As was done in the past, some of the varsity players help instruct the little ones as well, something Coach A feels is a great experience for them, and for the young kids with whom they work. The youngsters know their names, know they play for Park, and it gives them a chance to work closely with the high schoolers they’ve admired.
“I love that our players get a chance to work with the young kids,” Ammirante said. “They want to take their turn to give back to the community and those little kids know who those guys are.”
