Cardozo coach makes history GETS WIN NO. 500

Ron Naclerio became the youngest coach in PSAL history in 1981 when he took over the basketball program at Cardozo at the age of 21.
Twenty-six years later, after countless division titles, a city championship and basically owning the borough from a public school standpoint, he made even more of it, getting win number 500 last Tuesday afternoon in front of a sparse crowd at Cardozo, when his Judges overwhelmed Flushing, 75-57.
Also known as The Teacher, Naclerio became the fourth coach in the PSAL record books to win 500 games - following Charles Granby of Campus Magnet, Jim Kearney of August Martin and Floyd Bank of Thomas Edison and Long Island City - and, in his late 40’s (he preferred to keep his exact age private), the youngest ever to attain the milestone.
“It means a lot to be in that category and to make history in the PSAL,” Naclerio said.
For the easily excitable, overly passionate, often times zany Naclerio, it all began in the late 1970’s, when as an All-American outfielder for St. John’s University he became an unpaid assistant at Cardozo, his alma mater, earning college credits under then-head man Al Matican.
After graduation, Naclerio, a seventh round pick by the Chicago White Sox in 1979, spent three minor league seasons, with limited success due to injury. He eventually rejoined Matican’s staff full-time.
When Matican, after 12 years at the Oakland Garden school, left, he recommended Naclerio, who took over following the 1980-81 season. “As a teenager he had a great deal of insight into this game,” Matican recalled of his 5-foot-9 defensive specialist. “He was just very brilliant when it came to deciphering what was going on the court. He was like another coach.”
“Being single, he’s sort of married to basketball,” Matican continued. “And he does a lot for the kids. He gets them into school, he get them jobs over the years.”
In fact, he has gotten 61 kids into either Division I or II schools. Royal Ivey, Rafer Alston and Duane Causwell have gone on to play in the NBA, while brothers Brian Woodward and Dwayne Woodward and Roheen Oates have played pro overseas.
Naclerio won his lone city championship in 1999, topping John F. Kennedy of the Bronx, 56-46, at Madison Square Garden. He has reached two other finals, including 2004, when his Judges fell to Lincoln and Sebastian Telfair, the Coney Island point guard turned NBA Lottery Pick, and made four semifinalist appearances.
“He pushes guys to the next level,” said Ivey, a focal member of that championship team. “He’s a down to earth guy. He deals with on and off [the court] problems.”
Over the last decade, Cardozo has become the standard-bearer of excellence in Queens. The Judges haven’t lost a regular season league game since falling to Hillcrest in January of 2003 and this year, playing in the newly formed super division, Queens AA, have compiled a 14-0 league mark.
Also the associate editor of The Hoop Scoop Online, a national recruiting web service (he also hosts their weekly radio show streamed live over the Internet), Naclerio nearly landed an assistant coaching job at St. John’s when Norm Roberts took over in 2004. Despite his well-documented acumen for teaching the game - he works out NBA stars such as Lamar Odom, Ben Gordon and Elton Brand during the off-season - Naclerio has remained at Cardozo.
“I appreciate what I have,” he said. “I appreciate what I’ve built. I appreciate what I’ve accomplished. One day, I am hoping it does not hit me that there is more than coaching high school basketball. Thank God, that day hasn’t happened yet. Thank God I still love to do what I’ve done for 26 years.”