The 54th Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for Sunday, May 7 with 12 new members set for enshrinement during ceremonies at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center in Boardman.
Matisi is the longtime area girls’ basketball coach who is in his 30th year on the sidelines, having taken programs to the next level at Ursuline, Lowellville, South Range and McDonald high schools.
POTW, Collins Michaels, Campbell Memorial Red Devils(Opens in a new browser tab)
Born January 6, 1957, he is a 1975 graduate of Lowellville High School where he earned letters in football and basketball for the Rockets. Upon graduation, he attended Youngstown State University, later working at YSU before retiring on December 31, 2011, with 30-plus years of service. While he loves football and all sports, his leadership as a basketball coach for four area programs is something rival coaches have admired.
He can thank his wife, Laraine, for whetting his appetite to coach the cage game when she began her teaching career in the Lowellville Schools System (1980) and was named Jr. High girls’ basketball coach. He became her assistant and after she stepped aside, was called upon to coach the combined seventh and eighth grade teams, doing so for the next eight seasons.
He called those years wonderful learning years as he helped develop his players’ game, realizing how important the lower grades are when building a program as he was lauded for developing the feeder system to the Rockets’ ninth grade, JV and varsity programs.
Upon completion of his eight-year run, he earned his shot as a head coach when he was named head coach at Ursuline High School, a position he would hold for the next six seasons.
He led the Fighting Irish to a 70-60 (.539) overall mark from 1992-98 and in the fall of ’98, returned to his alma mater when he was named head coach of the Rockets. Over the next 15 years (1998-2013), he led the Rockets to a 277-88 (.759) mark and to this day remains the all-time winningest coach in LHS girl’s history.
He moved over to South Range High School from 2013-19, leading the Raiders to a 113-40 (.739) ledger while the past three seasons he has served as head coach of the McDonald Blue Devils girl’s program, leading them the first two years to a 39-12 (.765) mark and a state runner-up finish, the second-ever in MHS program history.
In addition to that state runner-up finish, he has led his teams to eight league titles, 21 sectional titles, two sectional runner-up finishes, 11 district championships, three district runner-up finishes, a regional crown and two other regional runner-up trophies.
He won the Inter-County League (ICL) title in 2003 and 2005, captured the ITCL (Inter-Tri County League) crown in 2007 and 2009, pulled off a three-peat from 2011-13, adding the MVAC (Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference) championship in 2021.
He earned district championships in 2004-05, 2009-15, 2018 and 2021, finishing as runner-up in 2002, 2017 and 2022. His Blue Devils won the 2022 regional crown while his Rockets were regional runners-up from 2004-05.
This past November 23, his Blue Devils presented him with his 500th career coaching victory, a 53-37 decision over the Windham Bombers at home. His 400th win came against Jackson-Milton when he served as head coach at South Range, a game when both teams were undefeated in the regular season while his 300th occurred while he was at Lowellville, that coming when the Rockets defeated Warren JFK in double overtime for the district championship.
When the Blue Devils defeated Windham this season, the game also marked his 700th all-time game as a scholastic head coach. He is married to the former Laraine Lellio and they are the parents of three sons, John, Zach and Mike,. John currently serves as head girl’s coach at Springfield Local, Zach is his trusted assistant while youngest son, Mike, is currently the head boys coach at Ravenna Southeast High. He resides in Lowellville.
