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NEW YORK — As he has done for much of the past 35 years, Cardozo High School head basketball coach Ron Naclerio showed up for a game on Friday night.
For a change, though, his win-loss record wasn’t on the line.
The winningest PSAL basketball coach in history was honored by the Nets before they took on the Knicks at Barclays Center. The Nets honored Naclerio for his success and his contributions to the city over the course of nearly four decades.
“I got a little nervous because I knew what was gonna happen — getting the award,” Naclerio, whose teams have won back-to-back SNY Invitationals, told SNY after receiving the honor.
“What made me feel good was knowing that no matter what happened, I wasn’t gonna lose. Usually, you have that big moment where it’s a game and you have to play the game and there is the agony of defeat, sometime. … I knew there was gonna be no agony of defeat.”
As Naclerio has amassed over 740 victories over the course of his legendary career at Cardozo, what has kept the coach going — aside from the love of the game — is the realization he is able to impact the lives of young people through it.
“When you’re young, all you care about is winning and losing,” Naclerio said. “When you get older, it’s winning and losing, but more is are you a winner or loser in the game of life. Yes, I wanna win in the game on the court, but if I can win the game on the court and make my players winners in the game of life, then that’s special.”
Sharing the honor with over a dozen of his loved ones, Naclerio made sure to thank his assistant coaches and the support staff that he has been fortunate to have around him. On Friday, it came as no surprise that his assistants Michael Blisset, Robert Moses and Billy Medley were flanking him, as was Cardozo principal Gerald Martori.
“It’s really great for him,” Martori told SNY. “Here’s a man who has put his life — 35 years of his life — to Cardozo basketball. There are a lot of kids over 35 years that he has helped. He helped move them on in their education and help keep them on track throughout the years. Yes, he has been very successful coaching, but that’s secondary to the impact that I observed in my eight years there that he has had on those kids that he has worked with.”
Said Naclerio: “Over the years, the phone calls, the texts, the Facebook messages, the Twitter messages, the reunion we have every year where they hug me with genuine love and say ‘Coach, if it wasn’t for you, I would be going down the wrong path,’ to be looked upon in that light, is a special, special feeling.”
It may not have been as special as when the coach won his record 723rd PSAL against Francis Lewis High School back on Dec. 1, but it certainly was close. Having won his second consecutive SNY Invitational last month, Naclerio clearly still has a knack for getting the job done.
“I’ve been blessed to be able to go on this run,” he said. “I hope the run doesn’t end for a while.”
By the looks of it, it won’t.
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