The chase for 500 is back on.

Bill Patrick has returned to coaching.

Patrick, whose basketball teams have never had a losing season, was named Tippecanoe Valley's varsity boys basketball coach at Monday's school board meeting. Patrick previously coached varsity basketball for 29 years in the Whitko school system, where his overall record was 478-180 (73 percent). His worst record in a season was 11-10.

This marks the first time Patrick returns to coaching since the 1994-1995 season, when he resigned at Whitko after clashing with the administration.

Why return now?

"I missed it," he said. "I guess that's the big reason. I enjoy coaching. I enjoyed the games and seeing the players progress, not only in basketball but in their overall outlook on everything. You spend that much time on the floor with those players, it's something hard to explain to those who have never coached.

"Obviously, the situation at Whitko is not one you want to end your career on."

Patrick beat out 46 other applicants for the job. Twelve of the 46 were brought in for interviews, including Roger Smith at Jay County and Bill Ociepka at Chicago Hubbard High School. Smith has more than 300 wins, while Lechepka is closing in on 200 wins.

"People here were familiar with Bill being at Whitko all those years," Valley Athletic Director Duane Burkhart said. "He produced winning programs year in and year out. His record speaks for itself. Because of Bill's closeness to the community and knowing the (Three Rivers) conference, we felt he was the best fit. We know the total package. We know what we're getting.

"To get down to the finals, we had three head coaches at 400-plus wins, 300-plus wins and close to 200 wins. That's great for Tippecanoe Valley."

Taking the Valley job allows Patrick to keep his home in Sidney, where he's lived his whole life. The drive is 20 minutes. He will teach at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School.

Asked how long he sees himself at Valley, Patrick said: "I told them five or six years."

And the number 500?

"Not even a factor," he said. "With other people, that seems to be important, but it's not to me. If it would have been a factor, I never would have gotten out of coaching to start with. I never really had any personal goals. I always thought it was kind of nice to never have a losing season."

If he has his way, he never will. He replaces Gregg Sciarra, who had a 66-85 record during his seven years at Valley. Valley went 6-15 last season. The Vikings return two starters off last year's team, sophomore forward/guard Brandon Eaton and sophomore point guard Noah Silveus.

"I'm certainly not going in there with the idea of building any kind of program waiting 10 years before we're competitive," he said. "It won't be our goal to win two years down the road. Our goal is to win next year.

"The top priority is to convince these kids if they're willing to put the time and effort in, they can win. If they don't want to sacrifice, it doesn't make any difference who's coaching. A lot of times kids want to win, but they don't want to do those things you have to do to win. It's not all fun and games. The fun part is having a good basketball team."

Patrick is the first basketball coach Valley has hired outside of the school system since the 1980's. The last was Roland Fletcher, whose two-year run ended in 1983. [[In-content Ad]]