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Friday, Sep. 18, 2009
Prep basketball coach Morgan dies
Longtime Denair coach had 832 high school wins.
Dave Morgan, the longtime Denair High boys basketball coach whose 832 wins over 52 seasons puts him among California's winningest coaches, died Monday night. He was 89.
Morgan coached the Coyotes from 1983-2000 and was The Modesto Bee's Coach of the Year in 1990. In 1982, he was named Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association.
His career coaching record, which includes victories in Ohio, is believed to be 832-425.
Morgan's other coaching stops in California included Del Mar of San Jose and Delhi.
Including his Ohio wins, Morgan is No. 2 among California coaches -- behind only Bay Area legend Mike Phelps' 843 wins.
Morgan, a member of the California Coaches Association's Hall of Fame, led Denair to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V title in 1990.
When Morgan came out of retirement to coach Delhi in the 2001-02 season, he was 82 years old and thought to be the nation's oldest active coach: "I just missed basketball too much last year," Morgan said at the time. "I discovered I didn't have a lot to do this winter. I had the time."
Morgan's career included 22 league titles, five of them in the Southern League. He also had two Denair teams finish as the Northern California Division V runner-up.
When asked why he twice came out of retirement -- he had retired from Del Mar and assumed his coaching career was over before re-emerging at Denair -- Morgan said: "Because I still love the challenge. And, because you can't golf and fish all day."
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