WHEELING — Longtime Ohio Valley basketball coach Gene Ammirante said Wednesday that, when it came to the success he’s enjoyed over his years in the sport “it’s not about the plays, it’s about the players.” The people who he has worked with over the decades have been the catalyst for those triumphs.

So as he accepted the 2025 Dr. Lee Jones Patron of Youth Award for his career’s work in mentoring the region’s youth, he made sure to credit those who have helped him along the way.

“This award is more of a testament to the people who raised me and that I’ve been blessed to be surrounded with my whole life,” Ammirante said before a packed Wheeling Park White Palace ballroom at the annual Wheeling YMCA Light of the Valley luncheon.

The Dr. Lee Jones Patron of Youth Award is given annually to an Ohio Valley resident who has gone above and beyond in the care and mentorship of the region’s youth.

Previous winners include H. Lawrence Jones, Bishop Darrell Cummings, Dr. Dan Joseph, Bob Nutting and Randy Worls.

Ammirante garnered a mile-long list of accolades throughout his coaching career. As Bellaire High School’s boys basketball coach from 1981-2011, he compiled 471 career wins, a 70% winning percentage, 14 Ohio Valley Athletic Conference championships, 14 sectional titles, six district titles and a regional title that put Bellaire into the 2004 Ohio state semifinals.

He also worked with the Wheeling Recreation Department following his retirement and is now an assistant coach for the Wheeling Park High boys basketball team.

Yet much more important to him than the trophies were the relationships he has built over the decades. He remembered when former Bellaire multisport star and NFL standout Joey Galloway – who was the guest speaker at Wednesday’s luncheon – gifted him a Cadillac. He loved the car, but he loved the card Galloway gave him so much more.

“It was the card, not the car that shined the most light, and I’ve kept it in safe keeping all these years,” Ammirante said. “Joey’s kind words in that card shine as long as I can rerun them.”

He said he was blessed to coach some great athletes in his time, but some of the most important players were ones who never reached that ultimate spotlight. He spoke of one, a three-year starter and a member of that 2004 team who didn’t finish his senior season. He was dismissed for violating team rules.

But that player sought out Ammirante at the YMCA years later to thank him.

“He said, ‘When you dismissed me from the team in 2005, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It actually helped me grow up,'” Ammirante said.

Ammirante thanked many people who helped him on his way, from his parents Jerry and Josephine, who “didn’t know a basketball from a pumpkin,” but showed him what hard work and dedication were, to his children Jerry and Lindsay, to his best friend Tom Bechtel, himself the 2022 Patron of Youth Award winner, to a list of mentors and friends in basketball and education.

Lindsay Ammirante, who introduced her father Wednesday, talked about his devotion to his family that has never wavered through the years. When his wife Pam died in 2017, he had her wedding band and his melded together so he could wear both every day.

“I may be biased, but I know of no one more deserving of an award like this than him,” she said.

Galloway echoed those sentiments, saying Ammirante cared for the kids he coached just as much. Galloway now coaches youth sports, too, and uses the tenets Ammirante has championed all these years.

“Our goal should be to make sure that kid wants to play again next year,” Galloway said. “And that’s what Coach A did for us.”

Proceeds from the luncheon went to the Wheeling YMCA, which is in the middle of a major renovation, adding space and improving other existing spaces. YMCA Board of Directors President Jamie Bordas presented YMCA Executive Director Adam Shinsky with a check for $68,800.