Mauro Panaggio
Mauro Panaggio has had a varied and most successful experience in the basketball coaching field. He has been extremely successful at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. His .683 winning percentage over a 40 plus-year career is among the top performances in the field. Championships have come to Panaggio at every level. His high-school record includes eleven league championships, with 220 wins and only 48 losses over a 13-year span. During that time, his teams never finished lower than second place in league standings. In nine years of college coaching at SUNY Brockport, his teams won 160 and lost 71, including four SUNYAC championships and two NCAA Division II and Division III eastern regional championships, advancing each time to the final four of the NCAA national championships. As head coach of the professional Rochester Zeniths in the Continental Basketball Association, the official developmental league of the National Basketball Association, he became the first CBA coach to win the league championship with an expansion team. His teams went on to win six division championships, with four appearances in the final championship series, winning two league championships. No team he has coached for a complete season has ever failed to qualify for the league playoffs during his 15-year tenure in the CBA. In 1967 the New York State Coaches Association recognized Panaggio as an outstanding high school coach. In 1975 he was one of eight finalists for the NCAA College Division Coach of the Year, awarded by the Eastman Kodak Company. He has been voted CBA Coach of the Year on three occasions: 1979, 1986, and 1993, one of only two to have been so honored. Panaggio has been inducted into the following Halls of Fame: New York State Section V as player and coach (2002), SUNY Brockport as player and coach (1978), and most recently, the New York State Basketball Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame (2003).
