'Every year is my favorite team': Galesburg girls basketball coach hits 1,000 career wins

Put Evan Massey on the Mt. Rushmore of Illinois high school basketball coaches.

The Galesburg girls basketball coach collected his 1,000th career win Dec. 2. A 55-46 victory over host East Moline United Township secured the milestone for Massey.

“Of the 46 years I’ve coached, it seems like every year is my favorite team,” Massey told the Journal Star. “This year is no exception. I love working with them. They’re coachable. It’s a positive.”

He became just the fourth prep coach in Illinois High School Association history to hit the 1K mark. Former Chicago Marshall girls coach Dorothy Gaters (1,133 wins), the late Westchester St. Joseph boys coach Gene Pingatore (1,035 wins) and former Oak Park Fenwick girls coach Dave Power (1,022 wins) are the others.

“To be honest, it was a little bit of relief,” Massey said. “It’s something that has been maybe a little too much of a focus for the last year or two. I appreciate the attention and things, but it has taken away from the focus on some of the things that I enjoy.”

Galesburg (8-0, 3-0 league) is undefeated heading into a 7 p.m. Thursday home game with Quincy. Fully expect Thiel Gymnasium to have plenty of Galesburg faithful on hand to celebrate their coach.

Massey says it’s very gratifying to have spent the entirety of his coaching career with the Silver Streaks, who are 1,000-392 (.718) under the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association hall of famer.

“There aren’t many people that can say they worked for a school for that long,” he said. “I’m proud that I’ve been involved and obviously, I have great feelings and great loyalty to Galesburg High School, so I’m proud of doing that part.

“The flip of it is I think that in terms of 1,000 wins, I’ve been on the bench for those thousand wins, but I certainly don’t own them. They belong to a lot of people. They belong to all the players, that have been dedicated and worked hard. The parents that let them be committed. The assistant coaches that have worked without getting glory or attention.”

“I think a big part of our success is the community and the fans,” he continued. “The support for girls basketball in Galesburg has just been unbelievable.”

The Silver Streaks won the first of 18 successive Class AA regional plaques in 1988, running that near two-decade streak through the 2005 postseason. In the span of 1995 to 2003, Galesburg also collected nine sectional championships, made the Elite Eight seven times and took home five state trophies (one second, one third and three fourth-place finishes).

Those years also included many Western Big 6 championships as well as holiday tournament titles, plus three Journal Star large-school players of the year in Molly Watson (1996, 1997), Sarah Larson (1999) and Sarah Pacheco (2001).

How long does Massey, 71, have left on the Galesburg sidelines?

“It’s not something I’ve dealt with,” he said. “Obviously, I’m much closer to the end of my career than I am to the beginning of my career. I know that. I enjoy it and so right now, I’m just going to enjoy the ride.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Galesburg girls basketball coach hits 1,000 career wins