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Eventually I hope to get some more candid photos of this most respected and influential Warwick teacher, coach and friend. For now this will have to suffice.
Vito Magdelinskas is pictured here with fellow Coach of the Year, Frank Mcguire of NC State and NCAA Player of the Year Chet Forte. The photo was taken at a dinner at the Hotel Newburgh in 1958.
Vito was a Basketball coach without peer, in the fifties and beyond. His manner, skill and obvious care for his young charges was a blessing to all Warwick youth of the day, athlete or otherwise.
Picture this - a dozen or so skinny kids in purple cotton shorts, Converse sneakers and plain white tee-shirts scurrying about the old WHS gym. Say it is around 5 O'Clock, mid-December, and the shrill voices of the cheerleaders practicing in the nearby hallway can be heard in the background. In the foreground the boys in short pants hear only the words of their coach, instructing, directing, coaxing, all in a manner befitting of this, the absolute most important pursuit on earth in this December of 1957 - what we called OCL high school basketball. Now, take those dozen boys, add the cheerleaders, the two or three little kids on the sidelines and ask each if there was ever a happier spot in the known universe?
My answer? None even close. ... from
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