HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
AL BURNS, BOARDMAN
1997 RECIPIENT
Make
all your players and friends feel that there is something special in them. Give
respect
to everyone, and in turn you may demand respect from all. Work hard, work
together, and
good things will happen. Never forget the element of simple fun in all that you
do.
Following an outstanding high school career at Boardman High School and college effort at Baldwin Wallace in basketball and
baseball, Coach Burns started his coaching career at Olmstead Falls with a 4-14
record. This was to be the only one of three seasons below .500 in 27 years as
basketball coach. After serving as an assistant coach, he became Boardman's head
coach in 1965. His team went 16-4 winning the Steel Valley Conference. Burns
served as head coach at Boardman for 26 seasons, winning 376 and losing 177.
They were SBVC champions nine times, eight times as sectional champs, and
district winners five times. They were regional champs once, leading them to the
Final Four in Columbus.
Not many Ohio teams have had such a fantastic run as Boardman
had for seven seasons, from the 1968-69 through 1974-75. These Spartan teams
were 138 and 22, including the 23-1 season in 1970-71. Boardman played against
most of the best teams in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Outstanding quintets,
with Greg Dunn and Jay Powell in the early 1970's, rank among an elite top ten
group of scholastic hoop units in Ohio. Boardman athletes such as Dave Dravecky
and Bernie Kosar brought additional fame to Boardman. Four time Burns was Coach
of the Year of the Mahoning Valley and Northeastern District. He is a member of
the Boardman High School Hall of Fame, as well as the Curbstone Coaches Hall of
Fame.
He has been married for 36 years to his high school
sweetheart, Nancy, and they have three children: daughter Terry and sons Bruce
and Allen, who were outstanding performers on their father's Spartan basketball
teams. He received a Master's degree in biology from Southern University in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he worked several summers while going to school,
typical of his great perseverance. He taught biology at Boardman High School for
30 years and as athletic director for the past five years.
Burns has been a basketball innovator, being the first in the
area to offer basketball day camps and open gyms. Basketball has been the love
of his lifetime and he has devoted himself to it, bringing credit to his family,
school, and community over many years.
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