The Chesapeake basketball community is celebrating Norm Persin’s 500th career coaching win. Persin doesn’t figure to begin any celebration for quite some time.

The Panthers 92-38 drubbing of the River Valley Raiders Friday not only gave Chesapeake an 8-0 record on the season, but registered the milestone win in Persin’s 29-year coaching career.

Persin said he probably won’t think much about the accomplishment until he finally hangs up his whistle.

“When the season is at hand or when you finish a season, you’re preparing for the next game or the next season. I think that maybe when you’ve retired and look back, then you’ll say we’ve done pretty well,” Persin said.

Persin now boasts a career record of 500-131 for a .792 winning percentage. He began his career at Oak Hill where he won three Ohio Valley Conference titles in six seasons, then won a league crown in the first of two seasons at Wilmington.

But preferring to be closer to his home in Oak Hill, Persin was hired as the Panthers head coach. Now in his 21st season at Chesapeake, Persin has won 13 more OVC titles including the last 10 seasons.

“You’re not going to win that many games unless you have good players. It’s obvious we have had great players at Chesapeake and we’ve had great support from our fans and our administration,” Persin said.

Along with the wins, Persin has taken eight teams to the regional tournament. He was the Associated Press Division III Coach of the Year for the 2003-04 season and has been named the Ohio Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year three times (1989, 1992, 1997).

His 1991 and 1992 teams each finished 20-0 in the regular season and were voted the AP poll champions.

A graduate of Rio Grande University, Persin is a member of the Warren High School Athletic Hall of Fame where he attended high school.

For his overall service to high school basketball, Persin was presented the Paul A. Walker Award at the state tournament in 2002.

“Our program has gotten bigger and better. I’ve had good support from the administration like Joe Smith, Joe Rase, Dan Russell and Sam Hall,” Persin said.

“You have to have that support to be successful for a long period of time. You have to have people in the system who work well with you. I’ve had great assistant coaches who have bought into what we do.”

It’s easy to buy when you know what the salesman can do.

Jim Walker is sports editor of The Ironton Tribune.