MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Success and longevity have been the keys for Fred Sauro to reach a West Virginia coaching milestone. With a victory at Chapmanville on January 5, the longtime Williamstown High School mentor became the winningest girls basketball head coach in state history with his 543rd win. The 76-year-old is not necessarily comfortable with the attention that has come his way.
“I didn’t want a big deal to be made out of it. It is kind of like passing a milestone. If you drive your car and you keep it in good condition, you keep gas in it and keep oil in it, eventually if you drive it long enough, you pass a milestone,” Sauro said on Sunday’s edition of the Citynet Statewide Sportsline.
“The thing I am proudest of, I think more than anything, is the longevity. I have been able to do it for 54 years. Actually, I have been coaching for 64 seasons. For ten years, I coached girls in the fall and boys in the winter.”
Sauro coached the baseball and boys basketball teams at Hundred High School in Wetzel County before moving to Williamstown. Progress was tough to come by in his early seasons but Sauro eventually built WHS into a state power, winning a Class A championship in 2003.
“I had never coached a girls sport before. I coached boys the whole time. I said, ‘This ought to be a snap. This ought to be pretty easy’. That is very arrogant.
“The first two years, we were 2-40. It took us eight years to win 15 games (in a season), to be honest with you. After that, it has been okay. It took us that long but it was a labor of love.”
Fred’s son Scott leads the boys program at Williamstown and he guided the Yellowjackets to the Class AA state title in 2021. Scott became one of the state’s best players in a highly-competitive era of basketball in the mid-90’s.
“When he came home, he had a little basketball in his crib. He didn’t stand a chance. He was captain of the all-state team in Class AA in 1994. He was one of six players mentioned for player of the year in West Virginia. The guy that did get it was Randy Moss. He played against Randy Moss and Jason Williams several times. He went to Waynesburg College and had a great career there. He came back and started coaching and he loves it. And he’s going to continue doing it.”
Sauro took a year of absence from the girls basketball program due to health reasons in the 2022-2023 season. He remained a constant presence at Williamstown games but turned over the daily responsibilities to interim head coach Danny Bunch.
“I didn’t want to muddy the waters or anything. Danny Bunch and Larissa Cothern are great. They are going to take over the program when I go. I am hoping they do unless Mike Krzyzewski decides to come back.”
Williamstown enters this week with nine victories in their first eleven games, including wins against state tournament hopefuls, Petersburg, St. Marys, Ravenswood, Chapmanville and Mingo Central.
“We’re just finding ourselves. We struggled early. Defensively, we were pretty good. But we struggled early because we couldn’t score very well. We’re starting to put the inside and the outside together. I don’t know what we can be. I look around and I think we can be in the conversation. That’s for sure.”