Dineen joins exclusive 700-win club

Whether its with the blue and orange colors of Buffalo Grove or the green and gold of Stevenson, Tom Dineen knows how to reach milestones.

After accumulating 100 through 600 wins at Buffalo Grove where he spent 29 seasons winning 677 games, Dineen became the only the second coach in the northwest suburbs to reach 700 on Wednesday night.

This time, the Hall of Fame coach was wearing a green sweater directing the Patriots to a 69-31 triumph over Maine West in the opening round of the Maine West Tip-Off Classic.

“It's a little weird to see him wearing green,” said former Bison Lindsey Hamma, a standout guard for Dineen's 2000 state championship team at BG who is the head softball coach at Hoffman Estates. “But it's great to see such a great person who has done so much for girls basketball accomplish this. It's nice to know we can all still come out and support him.”

Hamma, Patty Vermiglio and Dineen's daughter Jaime, who were at the game, played for Dineen's BG team that won his 500th game. Laura Vermiglio was a part of his 400th win while Dineen's assistant coach Ashley Sandstead played on the BG team that won his 600th.

“It is really neat to have played for his team that won 600, then come back and be on the other side of it when he wins his 700th,” said Sandstead, who was also Dineen's assistant a year ago.

After trailing 6-4, Dineen called a timeout and the Patriots (2-0) went on a 38-6 run to close out the first half.

“I was most concerned about going 1-0 in this tournament,” said Dineen, who is 700-237. “This is a program accomplishment. “It's a great group of kids, a very supportive group of parents and the administration has been wonderful as well as my outstanding family (wife Chris, sons Sean and Brad and daughter Jaime).”

It was fitting that after the game, Dineen was presented the game ball from Maine West coach Derril Kipp, another Hall of Famer, who won 700th game just last season.

“We faced each tower several tie and have had a great rivalry,” Kipp said “ I like Tom because he is a classy coach and always plays the game the right way.”

Patriots senior Michelle O'Brien was right on her game Wednesday, collecting a game-high 22 points with 6 rebounds and 2 steals.

As a freshman, O'Brien recalled playing against Dineen's Bison.

“That team (BG) was very very good,” O'Brien said. “He takes a team and knows how to make it win. He is so amazing, the best coach ever. I'm so happy for him. It's such a cool accomplishment.”

The Patriots didn't make Dineen sweat too much, leading by as many as 40 points at 59-19.

Anna Morrissey (2 rebounds, 2 assists) and Kari Moffat (3 rebounds, 2 assists) each added 8 points for the winners while Alex Elzinga added 6 points.

All 11 Patriots scored at least 2 points.

“I think we are clicking well,” said the Western Michigan-bound O'Brien. “Obviously, we want to keep improving at practice and keep getting better all the time.”

Maine West (0-2) was led by Amanda Hoye (8 points), Brittany Collins (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals), Ashley Collins (6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) and Stephanie O'Neil (6 points, 3 rebounds).

“Stevenson is a very experienced team, and they take advantage of all your mistakes,” Kipp said. “And we made some. We were so inconsistent. I don't know what happened. When things go bad, we don't have the experience to stop it. We are looking to improve after the Thanksgiving tournament.”

With Kipp's 704 wins, the game's two coaches had 1,404 wins between them.

“That's a lot of wins between a couple of old guys,” Dineen said with a laugh. “That's pretty unusual (getting it against another coach with that many wins).”

In 29 seasons at Buffalo Grove, Dineen led the Bison to the Class AA state title in 2000 and to third- and fourth-place finishes in nine trips to the state finals.

According to the IHSA records, Dineen becomes one of only five coaches to reach 700 wins along with Dorothy Gaters (Chicago Marshall), Dave Power (Fenwick), Evan Massey (Galesburg) and Kipp.

Just like it was when he was at Buffalo Grove winning 25 regionals, 11 sectional championships, nine Mid-Suburban League titles and 18 MSL divisional crowns.

“I don't like to make comparisons to Buffalo Grove, but we had something going there and we'd like to duplicate it here. I think since coming here, we've made huge strides in doing that.”