Head coach Tony Sellitto (far right) poses for a team picture with players from Maryknoll's 1976 boys basketball team, the first of seven Sellitto-led squads to win an ILH AA title. Courtesy Maryknoll School

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07141504_maryknoll76.jpg - Courtesy Maryknoll School

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Somehow it is ironic that the man who brought Maryknoll Spartans basketball to the forefront will have his named emblazoned on the center circle of the hardwood on the Alfred Wong Court at the Clarence T.C. Ching Gymnasium. After all, in his 23 seasons coaching the Spartans, Tony Sellitto held practice on an outdoor asphalt court.

Sellitto will be honored 6 p.m. Tuesday in a ceremony to not only unveil his name on the court, but also to announce a scholarship fund and preseason basketball tournament in his name.  

"That's hilarious," Sellitto said with a laugh about the irony. "A friend of mine said now there's a chance for everyone to walk on you. Don't it take too serious."

The reality is Sellitto turned a fledgling program in the mid-1960s to a perennial contender for two decades.  He guided his teams to seven Interscholastic League of Honolulu AA titles (1976, 1981, 1982, 1984 1985, 1986 and 1987) and one state AA crown (1984), as well as to three state A championships (1978, 1979 and 1980).  It was only appropriate the school find a way to get his name involved with the sport, as the floor and gym already have the names of significant donors, athletic director Ben Valle said.  But if Sellitto had his wish, there would be hundreds of names on the floor.

‘They just happen to put my name there," Sellitto said. "They could put every player who played for me on there. As I look back, the kids were really outstanding. The kids played really well. It's a tough situation; they didn't have a gym or anything. A lot of credit goes to them because they were persistent, practicing outside, you know, is not easy."

Sellitto never made it an issue about practicing outdoors, so he and his players never saw it as a handicap against teams that worked out indoors on hardwood floors.

"People would say, ‘Why would you coach there? They don't have anything,'" Sellitto said. "I don't care. I said if I was going to a tournament with a team and we had to practice and there was nowhere to practice, I would practice outside in the parking lot. I think the kids kind of took on that persona. They didn't really think about that, especially when it rains with the rubber balls. You couldn't get upset about it because you couldn't do nothing about it, so we just kind of trudged on."

Sellitto played quarterback at Colorado College the late 1950s. He would do his practice teaching at a high school in Colorado, where he also coached football.  He knew then that he wanted to be a coach.

"I played college football as a quarterback," Sellitto said. "I laugh all the time because I really didn't understand the game. But basketball, I understood. I could look at a court and I could see everything. When a coach told me things, I could understand it, so I knew then my career would be in basketball."

Sellitto's coaching was recognized with seven ILH Coach of the Year honors.  He also was named state Coach of the Year in 1984.  He compiled a 237-122 record at Maryknoll before moving on the Hawaii Pacific University, where he guided the then-Sea Warriors to the NAIA national crown in 1993. He remains associated with the sport as color commentator for University of Hawaii basketball.

Note:  AA is the equivalent of today's Division I, while A would be Division II.  From 1978 to 1980, when Maryknoll won three consecutive state A titles, the Spartans played the regular season in AA, but qualified for the A tournament by virtue of its small-school status.