Last week, he surpassed 800 victories in 34 years as a high school girls basketball coach. He and Marshall’s Dorothy Gaters are the only two coaches in Illinois with 800 or more wins.
He’s only lost 206 times in 1,008 games.
In 1986-’87, Power coached Immaculate Heart of Mary to a 32-2 record and a state championship.
In 1988-’89, he coached IHM to a 30-3 season and third place in the state tournament.
Need more?
In 1992-’93, his first season as head coach of a newly formed girls basketball program at Fenwick High School, a school that had formerly been for male students only, he coached a freshman team to a 1-9 record. By 1995-’96, the team finished the season with a record of 20-10 and the program just continued to get better from there.
Power’s team finished third in the state in 1996-’97, winning 35 games. The very next season his team won the state championship.
In 2001-’02, he coached the Friars to a 32-2 record. The very next season his team finished second at the state tournament. And the year after that, they finished third at the state tournament. He then coached Fenwick to two more 32-win seasons.
Not convinced?
In 2006-’07? You guessed it. His Friars won the state championship again. (In case you’ve lost count, that’s three state titles thus far in his coaching career).
The 30-plus victory seasons — eight in a row — finally came to an end. His teams won 29 games each in 2007-’08 and 2008-’09.
On the fence?
Last season, the Friars won 32 games and finished third in the state tournament.
Several of his former players have gone on to play basketball at Division I colleges, including Katie O’Grady (Marquette), Erin Lawless (Purdue), Sarah Kwasinski (Northwestern), Claudette Towers (DePaul), Kristin Heidloff (Georgetown), Devereaux Peters (Notre Dame), Erin Power (Pennsylvania), Alison Jackson (Ohio State) and Tricia Liston (Duke).
I take back the question, because there’s no question.
Power is a good coach.
