A coach from Donora has put two basketball teams on the map in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference.
In 11 years as a head coach, John Mappas has enjoyed considerable success, first at the College of Southern Maryland and currently at Chesapeake College where he will begin his eighth season in 2009-10.
A 1964 Donora High School graduate, Mappas also coached and taught mathematics at several Maryland high schools before and between his collegiate coaching stints.
At the College of Southern Maryland, Mappas' teams won 100 of 123 games with four consecutive National Division titles. His first team went 22-7 overall and reached the state title game. The Hawks won 26 games each of Mappas' final three seasons and made the National Junior College Athletic Association Region XX title game in 1987.
Mappas then coached at six high schools throughout the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference. He led Chopticon High School to the state finals, and his teams were fixtures in title chases throughout his high school coaching career.
After a 13-14 transitional season in his collegiate return at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Md., Mappas guided the Skipjacks to a 60-29 cumulative record in the next three seasons. The 2003-04 team tied the school record for single-season victories at 21. Chesapeake twice reached the state tournament semifinals. Following a two-year hiatus when he returned to high school coaching in southern Maryland, Mappas returned to Chesapeake.
Mappas' 2007-08 team compiled a school-best 27-5 overall and won the program's first-ever Region XX championship. The previous year, despite a mediocre regular season, the Skipjacks were region tournament finalists. Chesapeake's injury-filled 2008-09 season finished at 10-17 overall, leaving Mappas' junior college cumulative coaching record at 224-103.
"I have had good players, and coaching's overrated," he said. "Players win, not coaches. Ask Pat Riley and all those guys. When they had bad players, they lost. Players win games."
Mappas speaks fondly of his Mon Valley upbringing and returns to his roots often to visit his brother, Nick, and mother, Ethel, who live in Monessen and Charleroi, respectively. He enjoyed playing in popular men's sports leagues with older players such as Joe and Dave Muniz, Teddy Jurik and Chuck Giuffrida.
"When we were kids, we would play fast pitch with a tennis ball in the morning, football in the afternoon and play basketball at night," said Mappas who began teaching and coaching in 1970 shortly after earning his master's degree from Bowie State University. "That's all you did. None of us had cars. We weren't rich so you played sports." Nearly 40 years since beginning, Mappas still enjoys coaching.
"The competition is great," he said. "When you spend a lot of time at it and work with kids and they get better, it's very rewarding. Of course, you want to win, too, because that's what it's about and why they keep score."
Season-ending injuries and personal difficulties away from basketball cost Chesapeake four starters last winter.
"If we had stayed healthy, we would not have lost as much as we did," Mappas said. "Who wants to end their year or career on a losing note⢠We have all those kids back, but we have to get more size and add to it. I like to recruit kids who, hopefully, are students first and then worry about basketball. We'll be back."
Chesapeake College Athletic Director Frank Szymanski is confident the coach he has hired twice will continue to get the job done on and off the court.
"He's 100 percent dedicated to Chesapeake College and is a student-first, athlete-second kind of coach," Szymanski said. "Map knows the game and how to communicate to all walks of people -- which is special. He's one in a million, an old-school coach and one of the most loyal coaches I have been fortunate to have work for me."
