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Bob Mackey inducted into Hall of Fame

By Joseph Staszewski

Coaching girls sports wasn’t exactly something Bob Mackey embraced at first.

He was hired as a science teacher at Christ the King after being the head boys’ basketball coach at Tolentine in the Bronx for three seasons before the school abruptly closed in 1991.

Former Royals Athletic Director Rev. John Savage told Mackey he should join Vinny Cannizzaro’s staff with the girls’ basketball team. Mackey didn’t feel ready to get back on the bench and had only been a boys’ coach up until then.

“My first instinct was to say no,” he said. “When Savage offered me the job, I said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t coach girls.’”

It took some “ridiculously persistent” players to finally get Mackey to the bench. He remembers Christina Donovan-Flannery, who later died in the 9/11 attack, coming into his classroom and trying to push him to lead the team. The girls knew what Mackey could bring to the program, according to Cannizzaro.

He told Mackey that girls’ basketball at Christ the King would be much different that what he expected.

“I think once he saw the kids and saw their abilities and how hard they practiced, it was the kind of thing he needed to see,” said Cannizzaro, the school’s legendary coach.

Mackey finally relented and has led the Middle Village team ever since. His accomplishments there were rewarded with his induction in the GCHSAA Hall of Fame along with 10 others April 30 at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach.

He spent nine seasons as Cannizaro’s assistant, helping to build the Royals into a national powerhouse. He took over the head job in 1999 and kept the CK program playing at a high level. Mackey has won three state Federation titles at the highest classification, two fabled national championships and two national coach of the year awards in 2001 and ’05.

The Royals won 57 straight games during that time with players like Tina Charles and Carrem Gay. Despite the talent and countless scholarship-caliber players Mackey has coached at CK, there is a lot more to the Royals’ success.

“You don’t just roll the balls out,” he said. “It’s a lot of prep to get the girls ready for what everybody sees.”

His time at Tolentine made the transition to head coach on a national level easier. There he took over for legendary Coach John Sarandrea the year after the team won a national title and coached stars like Adrian Autry and late NBA player Malik Sealy. Mackey was faced with a similar situation when Cannizzaro left for Stony Brook.

“Having coached the boys made it so much easier because I knew what had to be done to win,” he said.

For Mackey, also an athletic director and girls’ volleyball coach at the school, the work goes beyond just games and practices. Jill Cook, who has been on the bench alongside Mackey for 22 years, joked while introducing him at the awards dinner that it’s easy to be his assistant coach because he wants to do everything from mopping the floor to taping the players’ ankles to fetching the water.

“He does the same thing in school,” Cook said. “If the science class needs to go to the Bronx Zoo, he’s driving the bus. If somebody gets sick, he’s running there instead of the nurse.”

That work ethic, passion and intensity are something he always had. Mackey was exactly the same way as a scrappy player growing up, according to legendary Cardinal Hayes Coach Tom Murray, who was around Mackey at CYO summer camps. Mackey expects similar traits from his players and holds them to a high standard.

“Coach Mackey, he wanted his sophomores to play like juniors, his juniors to play like seniors and his seniors to play like freshmen in college,” WNBA player Charles said. “That’s what enables me to play the way I did throughout my career at UConn.”

And even years later, the expectations that come with coaching Christ the King haven’t diminished. The Royals haven’t been able to compete nationally at the same level the last four years, but remain one of the dominant teams in New York state. They have won two Brooklyn/Queens diocesan titles during that time, providing a different level of satisfaction for Mackey.

“I think it’s a lot more rewarding because I think we really had to work the last four years to get to where we were,” he said.

And he might not even be where he is had it not been for some persistent players back in 1991.

“Finally I said, ‘All right, whatever. You know what. Yeah, let’s go,’” Mackey said. “Vinny and I had a great time coaching together. Jill came on two years later and we had a ball.”