Portland St. Patrick’s Al Schrauben retires after more than 40 years
PORTLAND, Mich. (WLNS) – After 40 years as the head Girls Basketball coach at Portland St. Patrick, Al Schrauben has decided to retire. He leaves an incredible legacy behind, amassing a 729-208 record with the Shamrocks which is third all-time in wins in the MHSAA.
“It was a pretty emotional week and it was hard to get it out when I finally said it, but I knew at the beginning of the year that I thought I was going to,” Schrauben said. “I’ve been thinking and contemplating it for a few years now and at the end of the other years it didn’t quite feel right, and this year it did.”
The Shamrocks won six state titles in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2002 under Schrauben and his favorite memory during his tenure comes from one of his many deep runs in March.
“Probably the first team that got to the finals,” Schrauben said. “We were like 13-7 and I truthfully hadn’t really accomplished much in basketball and our program was very good before I took over. At that time there weren’t a lot of other things for kids to do, and we had a huge student body, the gyms were sellouts through the tournament, and it was just a very exciting time and I hadn’t been through it before. I used to travel all over and watch boys basketball games when I was in high school and saw how exciting that was and I thought if I could do that once, I’d be really, really happy.”
Being a girls basketball coach wasn’t something Schrauben would have envisioned in his future if you had asked him 45 years ago. The job just kind of fell into his lap.
“I coached football I think for six or seven years and our basketball coach took another job and we didn’t have anybody to take it over at the time and that was me,” Schrauben said. “In my first game, I took a girl out because she was struggling a little bit and I was just trying to calm her down. She comes to the bench crying and I’m thinking, ‘What did I get myself into?’ But it worked out very well.”
Schrauben wore many hats around the school, serving as the Athletic Director, Girls Basketball coach, Boys Basketball coach, Baseball coach, and Football coach at some point. His retirement is truly the end of an era and Schrauben will forever cherish his time on the Shamrock sidelines.
“I spent an awful lot of time in the school and it’s it’s certainly a special place to me and I will continue to be Shamrock as hopefully I can live a little older,” Schrauben said.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
