BVA’s Salvino announces retirement

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

When it’s time, you just know. For Belle Vernon Area boys basketball coach Joe Salvino, now is the time.

The second-winningest coach in WPIAL history with 741 victories is walking away.

Salvino announced Thursday that this season will be his last on the sideline and he’ll be riding off into retirement when the Leopards’ season comes to an end.

He has a career record of 741-313.

“I talked to the team before practice and got them all together and told them this is it,” Salvino said. “I told them after this year, I’m done. No one said anything. My captains knew before the season started, but I asked them not to say anything because I didn’t want the season to be about me. I wanted the team to focus on what we needed to do like winning the section.”

After winning the section outright this past week, it will be 10 days or more before Belle Vernon (18-4, 11-1) returns to the court.

“With us playing so well and taking care of what we wanted to accomplish, I figure that since it’s going to be so long before we play again, it’s OK to go ahead and announce it now,” the longtime coach said. “By the time we get to our next game, this will all be over with and we can focus on our next goal.

“Going out a winner, that’d be the icing on the cake.”

Salvino said he hopes going out on top could be a little source of motivation as the Leopards begin the hunt for a WPIAL championship. They’re one of the hottest teams in the WPIAL, winning 12 straight games, and are looking at a probable high seed in the upcoming playoffs.

“Deep down, when you know something is going to happen, it makes it easier when it’s time,” Salvino added. “I knew in the summer that I was ready to retire. The fact we’re playing our best basketball right now, that made it a little easier.”

Salvino said he knew during the Leopards’ summer workouts, when participation thinned a little bit.

“For me to put my time in and kids not show up, that’s not a good thing. It’s hard to keep kids interested in the offseason,” he said. “It’s not the kids, though. There’s just so many things that kids have going on in their lives, it’s hard for them to focus sometimes. You have to change with the times. Kids are focused on more than one thing now.

“When I first started, I really liked gameday and coaching in those games. Now, I like the practice time more now and the teaching and coaching that happens there.”

Salvino, 73, is in his 41st season as a head coach. He began as a head coach in Monessen in 1984. He won back-to-back state championships in 1988 and 1989, despite not winning WPIAL championships in those seasons.

He does own six WPIAL championships – 1995, 2001, 2002, 2011, 2015 and 2017. He left Monessen for neighboring Belle Vernon in 2018 and led the Leps to the 2020 WPIAL 4A championship game when they lost to Highlands. It was only the second title game appearance in program history (1978).

“I have to say, I’m pretty happy with all the things I’ve got to be a part of. That’s all I was, just a part of it all,” he said. “I’ve had some really great assistants throughout the years. I’ve had great players that adapted to my system and I was again, just a part, of a lot of wins.”

Salvino admits he’s not the same coach he was back in the ’80s and ’90s. He may be a little softer nowadays, but don’t be fooled.

“There’s not a lot of screaming and yelling anymore,” he said with a laugh. “You have to change with the times. You don’t want to hurt feelings. I don’t want to say that kids back then were tougher, they’re just different. There’s a lot of reasons for that.

“Getting older is one of them, and my wife (Toni Lynn) has a lot to do with that, but she still likes to see me get riled up every once in a while.”

And Toni Lynn is the rock that keeps Salvino grounded.

“Of course we talked about this day,” he said. “She’s always been so supportive. She just said that if I feel it’s time, then it’s time. If you don’t have a person like that supporting you, you couldn’t coach 41 years. It’s time consuming. Think about it, that’s nine months out of the year. She’s been beside me the whole way and she doesn’t miss a game.”

Looking back is something Salvino said he never does, but he’s sure that once in retirement, he will. He’s overcome cancer and a stroke in the past as well.

“I’d have to say my career has been pretty good. I don’t look back, though. I never did and still don’t,” he said, reminiscing about being on the bus ride home from winning a state championship and planning what he was going to do in an undergrad tournament the following weekend.

“That’s where I’m at now. I figured it’s a good time to let this out. We’re off and we’ll get back to it after a break. I’m always looking to the future and looking to the next game. I want our kids to focus on that. We’re scrimmaging Upper St. Clair and Baldwin on Wednesday, so that will be a good time to let this all pass and get us back to where we need to be.”