Greatest High School Basketball Coaches of All Time

You don’t become a great coach in any sport without consistency.

Nowhere in sports is consistency more valued than on the high school level, where a coach can lead fathers and then their sons at the same school. When you end up doing that, it means you’ve had a lot of success. 

High school basketball has had its share of success stories. These coaches are the biggest legends with the most wins in high school basketball history.

W-L record: 921-228

Win percentage: 80.1%

Years: 1966-2010

Schools: Eisenhower (Washington) High School, Anchorage East (Alaska) High School, Anchorage West (Alaska) High School

State championships: 18 (1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983-85, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010)

Bottom line: Few sporting figures in Alaska history have loomed as large as Chuck White, a star athlete for the University of Idaho who was drafted to play in the NBA, NFL and MLB. 

White won a staggering 18 state championships during his coaching career and put high school basketball in Alaska on the national radar, most notably when his 1993 team at East High entered the national rankings thanks to future Duke star and NBA player Trajan Langdon. 

White, who only had one losing season in 45 years as a coach, died in 2019 at 78 years old. 

Note: Only boys basketball coaches were included in these rankings. The source for wins is the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). All win totals are current through Dec. 10, 2021. 

W-L record: 922-420

Win percentage: 68.7%

Years: 1958-99

Schools: Sullivan (Tennessee) High School, Sullivan Central (Tenn.) HIgh School

State championships: None

Bottom line: Richard “Dickie” Warren spent his entire career in Sullivan, Tennessee — first as the head coach at Sullivan High, then at Sullivan Central. 

Warren, a football and basketball star at East Tennessee State, won 15 coach of the year awards during his time at Sullivan but never was able to win a state championship as a coach. 

Warren did have a state championship as a player, famously scoring the tying run in a legendary baseball state championship game as a senior at Dobyns-Bennett High in 1952. 

W-L record: 924-198

Win percentage: 82.4%

Years: 1933-65

Schools: Perry (Georgia) High School

State championships: 8 (1947, 1949, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1964)

Bottom line: Eric Staples still makes the list despite not coaching a game in almost 60 years — the longest amount of time of any coach among the list of wins leaders. 

Staples was known for his understated coaching style. His offense was a series of simple pick and rolls, and he rarely, if ever, paced the sidelines during games, instead choosing to stay seated and instruct his team. 

One of Staples’ former players, Billy Powell, actually wrote a book called “Pride of the Panthers” about the team’s accomplishments and Staples’ coaching genius over 30 years.

Staples died in 1984. 

W-L record: 932-435

Win percentage: 68.2%

Years: 1975-2019

Schools: Robert E. Lee (Louisiana) HIgh School, Baton Rouge (La.) Central High School, Woodlawn (La.) High School, Gonzales East Ascension (La.) High School, Holden (La.) HIgh School

State championships: 3 (1999, 2002, 2003)

Bottom line: Kenny Almond won three state championships at Woodlawn High and also finished as state runner-up four times in his career — three at Woodlawn and once at Lee High in 1982. 

Almond’s greatest team was probably his 2003 squad, which finished ranked No. 2 in the nation behind St. Vincent-St. Mary (Ohio) High and star player LeBron James. 

Almond was inducted into the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.