Cinotte steps down as Hall coach
SPRING VALLEY — Hall High School got its football coach last week, its new athletic director last month. Now it’s going to need a new varsity girls' basketball coach.
Pat Cinotte has told the BCR he planned to resign from his post as the Lady Devils' coach. At 8 a.m. Monday, he walked into athletic director Gary Vicini’s office at Hall and made it official.
Cinotte said he resigned over some unresolved issues in the program. He did not wish to elaborate further.
His resignation was accepted at Monday’s special board meeting, leaving the board another position to fill on its coaching staff.
Cinotte feels satisfied with how he leaves the program, having won three regionals in four years, capped by a 10-0 run for the NCIC Lincoln championship this season. He exits with a 87-32 record (.731), having inherited a team led by all-stater Kailey Klein in his first year, culminating with the program’s first and only state finals appearance.
The program has also produced a Div. I player (Klein at Cleveland State) and will be sending seniors to Div. II (Carly Prokup to Wisconsin-Parkside) and Div. III (Lindsay Wallaert to Lake Forest College).
“I thought we did a great job, the coaching staff and players involved, for what we accomplished. I don’t know if any programs can top what we did,” he said. “I can’t thank enough the players for what they have done the last four years and my coaching staff.”
Cinotte said the Lady Devils met the challenge of playing state-ranked teams in the Bloomington-Normal Holiday Classic the past two seasons. Though Hall had a 2-6 record, he said gave his girls and team a lot of statewide recognition and provided a measuring stick to see how they stacked up against the top-caliber teams.
A longtime assistant at IVCC under Gerry Thornton and Mike Riley, as well as a head boys' coach at DePue before returning to Hall, his alma mater, Cinotte says he can’t rule out anything.
“If somebody does contact me, I’ll definitely sit down and listen to see if the job fits and the job is right,” he said.
He joked that he did “have hair before started coaching.”
In addition to girls' basketball, Hall also remains in the hunt for a varsity volleyball coach. Former assistant Julie Sherbeyn was set to take over the job, but she withdrew at the last minute to apply for the head job at IVCC, which she eventually landed.
Hall named assistant coach Jason Bland as the successor to Gary Vicini in football, a move that leaves Mike Filippini as head varsity boys' basketball coach.
In other Hall school news, the board approved the adoption of boys' and girls' bowling for the 2009-10 winter sports season. Hall also moved to implement a girls' soccer program in the spring of 2010, replacing the fledgling coed program in the fall.
