By John Raffel
Bob Anderson has coached more varsity basketball games than any coach in the state, and the current Ithaca girls’ coach has enjoyed plenty of success while he’s been on the sidelines.
Anderson has 684 wins in his career. His 1,225 games as coach for both boys and girls made him tops in the state.
“That’s 51 [seasons] because I was able to double when I started at [Gaylord] St. Mary’s, because girls were in the fall and boys in the winter,” Anderson said. “I could double as boys and girls. I went to Vanderbilt and I doubled as boys and girls. I came down to Ithaca and I coached 17 years here as boys, but I also did 10 years with the Alma girls. Now I’m back with the Ithaca girls after I retired.
“It’s 51 varsity seasons, but it all started back in 1979.”
The numbers don’t include all the junior varsity and other levels he coached.
“I suppose you could say I’ve been around a long time, and I haven’t been fired,” Anderson said. “I’m an older guy who loves the game of basketball. The game belongs to the kids. There’s only one person in the gym who goes to watch me, and that’s my wife. Everyone else is there to watch the kids play. I’m just an older guy who loves to teach the fundamentals of basketball.”
But, Anderson acknowledged, the game has changed much over the years. “The introduction to the 3-point play wasn’t there when I first started,” he said. “Now, so much more basketball is televised. There’s parents who think they know things because they’ve watched ESPN and all of that. You have to keep control of your team and make sure you can have the basics taught with them.”
After starting at St. Mary Cathedral, Anderson went to Vanderbilt and came back to Ithaca, his hometown, in 1992. He graduated in 1967.
“I’m kind of like Terry Hessbrook,” Anderson said of the current Yellowjacket football coach and athletic director. “He’s an Ithaca grad, too. He’s pretty much a legend here. My comment is that if you’re going to come back to your hometown, you’d better be a pretty good coach and teacher, because you don’t want your classmates to run you out of town.”
A major highlight for him was coaching a girls’ team in the semifinal round while he was at St. Mary in 1984.
“The next highlight might be this year,” he said of his highly successful 2014-15 Ithaca girls’ team. “When I was boys’ coach at Ithaca, we won the league three out of four times. The program was at rock bottom. When I took over, the varsity had won three and the JVs had won four. They had asked people in town to coach them, and they refused because the program was so bad. I went in and said I would coach the girls if you wanted me to because I had absorbed a lot of losses.
“Not only do I lead the state in games coached, I’ve probably had the most losses. All the years are memorable.”
He doesn’t see any difference when it comes to coaching boys or girls. “I coach athletes,” he said. “I don’t distinguish between men and women. I will say this, guys are a little more creative on the court. You may call a timeout, and they may deviate from what you want because they’re more sure of themselves on the court. Girls want to please you more and will do exactly what you want. That’s one thing I want to instill in my girls that you don’t always want to run a set pattern that we put you in. Use your creativity. Guys are more confident in their ability, and they stray more from our offense. They’ll do what they have to do.”
Anderson, 66, retired from teaching in 2010. How many more years will he coach?
“I have surgery for a brain aneurysm coming up,” he said. “As long as I’m healthy, I will coach, because it’s a game that I love, even though the game is for the young kids. As you get older, you don’t do everything as well as you used to. But I think I’m a very good basketball coach. That’s one thing I enjoy, and and I’ll stay with it as long as can.
“I respect my players, and I don’t embarrass them. I’m not a yeller. I’ve only had four technicals in 1,125 games. They were all funny lines, but the refs didn’t think so. Treat my players with respect, and they treat me the same way.”