Feb 6, 2025 4 min read

By Bill Hughes

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

Belle Vernon’s Joe Salvino, a staple in the WPIAL basketball coaching community for 41 seasons, will retire at the end of this season.

A longtime coach at Monessen, where he led his hometown Greyhounds to six WPIAL championships and a pair of PIAA titles, Salvino is in his seventh season at Belle Vernon. The Leopards are 18-4 heading into the playoffs. They recently clinched the Class 4A Section 3 title.

“I knew this past summer this would be it,” he said Thursday after his team’s practice. “These seniors, I wanted to at least wait for them to graduate.

“I didn’t want to leave Belle Vernon with a bare cupboard, and whoever gets the job will have something to work with.”

All 41 of Salvino’s teams made the playoffs, and he enters the postseason with a career record of 741-313.

“I am hoping we make a run in the playoffs,” Salvino said. “I am looking forward to that and it is a special time when you get in the playoffs.”

It is fitting that Salvino decided over the summer that this would be it for him, as he has seen how things have changed.

“I thought it was time, and it is harder and harder to get summer workouts and get kids in the summer league,” he said. “Kids are concentrating on other things and there are so many other things for them to do.”

Salvino’s 741 wins rank second in WPIAL history behind North Catholic’s Don Graham’s 801 (and 436 losses in 52 seasons), who coached at the school from 1948-99.

However, North Catholic did not join the WPIAL until the mid-1970s and all of Graham’s wins prior to that point were in a Catholic league.

Salvino coached long enough to coach three sets of fathers and sons: Craig and Justice Rice at Monessen, Cam and Jalen Madison at Monessen, and Curty Wade (Monessen) and his sons, Alonzo and Curty (at Belle Vernon).

When asked what he would have said had he been told during his first season in 1984-85 that he would coach this long, Salvino did not hesitate to answer.

“I would have said ‘you’re crazy,'” he said with a laugh. “I mean, I never thought I would coach this long, and when you enjoy something, time goes fast.

“There are a lot of things coaches have to deal with. To coach as long as I have, the game has changed and if you don’t adapt, you will be left behind.

“There was no three-point shot when I started, and you worked (your offense) outside in,” he continued. “I don’t think some of the kids today could deal with me back then, as I was a little bit more loud and little more crazy.”

Having coached long enough to have players who are grandfathers, what does it mean to Salvino to see so many of his former players become successful after their days on the hardwood?

“It means a lot when you see what kids do, and that is part of coaching,” he said. “We want to see them be successful, to get married with kids and that is great to see.”

Salvino knows what he wants his legacy to be.

“That I put everything that I possibly could into coaching,” he said. “It takes a lot. You have to have good people around you. My wife, Toni, with her support, I have been fortunate.

“I hope all my players and assistants know I appreciate them, and I am grateful for them. Without them, the wins and records aren’t there.”