George Guido: Mars’ Carmody reaches coaching milestone

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, December 11, 2018 | 6:09 PM

Congratulations to Mars boys basketball coach Rob Carmody on his 300th career victory Saturday afternoon as the Planets routed Freeport, 94-47.

Mars won both games at the Freeport Tip-off Tournament in decisive fashion.

After a WPIAL title PIAA Class 5A runner-up finish last season, Carmody had three starters to replace from that team, particularly his son, Robby, who averaged about 30 points per game.

The younger Carmody, now at Notre Dame, finished with 2,378 career points. That’s seventh on the all-time WPIAL boys scoring list.

Mars is No. 1 this week in the TribHSSN Class 5A rankings.

The Planets had Tuesday off and will play at Indiana Friday in the section opener before taking on Franklin Regional, the school they defeated in the WPIAL finals last season.

After that, Mars will head to Las Vegas to play in the Tarkanian Classic.

Under Carmody, Mars has made the WPIAL playoffs the last 11 seasons and the PIAA playoffs the last seven seasons.

Coaching retirements

Two well-known football coaches announced their retirements recently.

Steve Sherer of Summit Academy and Jim Wildman of Sharon stepped down from their posts after their teams’ final games.

Sherer coached Summit Academy for 18 seasons. While his record wasn’t glittering, his mission was different than most football coaches. Summit is a school for court-adjudicated youths.

While the scoreboard is often not in Summit’s favor, Sherer, also the school principal, had goals beyond the won-loss record.

The ultimate goal was to getting his boys geared toward becoming productive members of society instead of leading a life of recidivist criminal activity.

For Knights team members, it was often the first set time they were part of something positive. Patience was a virtue as Sherer taught his players the nuances of the game and learning responsibility to themselves and others.

During his playing days, Sherer was a running back on Duquesne’s 1973 club football national championship team.

The late Bob Tatrn and I broadcast Duquesne games at North Park’s Lt. J.C. Stone Field on the former Westmoreland Cable Co. Channel 3.

Channel 3’s general manager, the late Sam Buffone, had some new equipment he wanted to try. It sounds quaint now, but Buffone bought a camera that filtered light to the point that night games could be televsised.

Before that, Channel 3 could only carry daytime high school football games — of which there were plenty in that era.

Soon after Summit’s season concluded, Sherer was off to Colorado where his sons live.

But his influence on players whose lives he helped turn around is his legacy.

One thing that sticks in my mind is the 2013 WPIAL playoffs. Summit qualified for the first time in school history but lost to Beaver Falls.

That, however, was only part of the story. Word was that if Summit had won, three players whose sentences were up wanted to stay and be part of the team for its remaining run when they could have returned to their hometowns.

Wildman completed a remarkable career at Sharon, winning 257 games.

His final victory was a 28-7 decision over Bald Eagle Area on Nov. 24.

Wildman informed school officials Monday morning he was stepping down. He indicated to reporters after the Dec. 1 loss to Aliquippa that he was going to take a week to think about his future.

Wildman’s career goes back so far that Sharon was still a WPIAL member when he started in 1977.

Wildman, who was being considered for the Valley job in the 1990s, coached until 2001. He retired, then returned in 2013.

He is the third-winningest coach in District 10 football history behind Wilmington’s Terry Verelli and Warren’s J.B. Leidig.

In his 31 seasons, he was PIAA runner-up twice, won two western finals and 10 District 10 titles.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.

Tags: Mars, Summit Academy