Abington Heights boy's head basketball coach Kenny Bianchi is back for his 20th season with the Comets, and on Friday December 4th the home opener against Holy Cross-Bianchi goes for career win #700.
"If it comes it comes. I mean I've been blessed. I played for great coaches like Coach Burke and Coach Donovan in high-school, and then coach Bill Clark in college just learning from them. It's the success from the system," said Kenny Bianchi.
Bianchi has amassed 11 league and 8 district titles in his time in the Summit. The pipeline of talent included the Gatorade Player of the Year -J C Show in 2013, big man John Konzelman in the early 2000's, and David Doino and Mike Manning way back in 1998.
"We had a lot of people in the beginning that didn't believe that our system was working. They wanted us to run up and down more. We didn't shoot the ball enough. We stressed defense. We wanted to take shots. We wanted to take good shots, not just any open shot. And as I said I've been blessed with some great talent and that's why I am here," again said Kenny.
Assistant coach Jeff Mclane has been with Kenny since the beginning, and now Kenny's son Chris joins the staff for the first time.
"It's been an honor to play for the coach back in the 70's, and coach with him or over 30 years. He loves his kids. He works hard at it. He's always calling me on the phone. What can we do different? What can we change,?" said Jeff.
"We're working real hard now. Beginning of the season we are pushing everything that we have for him. Hoping to win that one game for him and get that 700th win for him," said Tim Toro.
Julius Prezelski from Forest City finished with 757 career wins. Eddie Gayeski Shickshinny Northwest and his great teams in the 80's amassed 744. Bianchi's numbers are right there.
"I look up to them. I could never get there. They did great jobs for them. A lot longer that I did. I'm just happy that I'm in the position that I'm in now," added Kenny.