CHSAA Coach of the Year – Bob Mackey
From at least one perspective, Bob Mackey hasn’t had the easiest of times as head coach of the Christ the King girls’ basketball team. Since taking over for former top man Vinny Cannizzarro, Mackey has won just one state Federation championship (in 2000) but has failed to reach that pinnacle since, something Cannizzarro’s clubs did with regularity.
But he has won five straight CHSAA state crowns, as well as five Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan, compiled a record of 127-14 — including 26-2 this season — and has had his team ranked nationally in each of his seasons.
This year Mackey guided the team to the state Federation semifinals, where the Royals squared off against Murry Bergtraum in a game featuring two of the top three teams in the country. Bergtraum escaped with the win, but CK’s performance this season was more than enough to win Mackey TimesLedger CHSAA Girls’ Coach of the Year honors.
“If I had padded our schedule, we would have been national champs,” Mackey said. “We could have played an easier schedule and probably been undefeated going into the finals. We’ll play anybody as long as it’s within the rules. I’ve had no problems playing anybody, never have.”
Mackey, 40, who lives in Suffolk County, started his coaching career at Tollentine until it closed in 1991. He then took an assistant’s position at CK the following year, working under Cannizzarro until the former coach left to be an assistant at Stony Brook.
For a lot of coaches, what Mackey was faced with this season would have seemed a daunting task. Last year’s CHSAA state title team graduated all five of its starters and the first two players off the bench — all Division I athletes. Still, Mackey was able to put a team on the floor that didn’t seem to miss a beat.
“This year was a whole new ball game,” Mackey said. “It was a brand new team. We were starting pretty much from scratch. We were lucky that the girls from last year were able to step in.”
They lost only once during the season, a non-league loss to Maryland’s Bishop McNamara in the finals of the Tournament of Champions in Phoenix and beat league foe Archbishop Molloy, which went on to win the state Federation Class A title, three times.
And there is no reason to think CK will slide next season. The Royals are bringing back Carrem Gay and Tina Charles, two of the most dominating players in the CHSAA, if not the nation, as well as their coach.
“I’m staying,” he said. “I’m not leaving the NYC area and I really don’t have any plans to.”
