SAN JOSE — After 30 years on the sideline coaching the Bellarmine boys basketball team, Patrick Schneider notified his players Wednesday that he has stepped down, the school announced in a news release.
Schneider retires as the West Catholic Athletic League leader in victories, with 534, to go with 312 losses.
His program won 14 Central Coast Section championships in 21 trips to a final and six West Catholic Athletic League titles.
The Bells reached the CCS Open Division championship game five consecutive seasons from 2016-2020, winning the best-of-the-best division in 2018.
“I will always be grateful for the opportunity to coach at Bellarmine,” Schneider said in the school’s release. “It was an honor to represent the school for all these years. Competing in the WCAL has been a privilege, one that has required my best effort day in and day out. And now, after 30 seasons, I’ve emptied the tank. Our players, basketball program, and school deserve someone with the energy to drive the program forward.”
Schneider will remain at Bellarmine full-time in the Religious Studies department.
His departure from the basketball court won’t be easily replaced.
“Patrick Schneider truly put Bellarmine basketball on the map,” the school’s president, Chris Meyercord, said in the release. “He made us into a perennial contender in what most would concede is the most competitive league in Northern California. Under his guidance, we captured 14 CCS Championships and reached the CCS Open Title game five out of the last seven years. More importantly, Patrick cared even more deeply about character than about wins and losses, and the quality of young men he coached is further evidence of his excellence as a coach of a Jesuit high school.”
Schneider’s departure from the basketball program comes two years after Bellarmine’s longtime football coach, Mike Janda, stepped down as the CCS’s all-time leader in wins.
Former St. Francis basketball coach Steve Filios, whose teams had many emotionally-charged games against Bellarmine, said in a statement about Schneider, “No coach has done more to promote the essential elements of character-building and ethics than Patrick Schneider. In his three decades serving as basketball coach at Bellarmine College Prep, Patrick has modeled and instilled the core principles: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship in coaching his student-athletes.
“A true man of integrity, and admired colleague, Patrick has also provided leadership and promoted camaraderie with his fellow coaches in the WCAL, the CCS, and the CIF,” Filios, a former CCS assistant commissioner, added. “I cannot thank him enough for the contributions he has provided to our sport, our student-athletes, and to me personally.”
A search for Schneider’s successor will begin soon, the school said.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com