Year after winning his career 700th game, Albrecht had now won his 700th game at the helm of junior college basketball in St. Louis.
Spencer Gleason
-Sport Editor-
As the buzzer sounded at the end of the St. Louis Community College Archers 87-77 victory over the Tohono O’odham Community College Jegos, on Jan. 4, in Yuma, Ariz., Archer head coach Randy Albrecht had just reached another milestone—win number 700—again.
A year after winning his career 700th game, Albrecht had now won his 700th game at the helm of junior college basketball in St. Louis. Albrecht, who had coached for three seasons at St. Louis University in the mid 1970s and compiled a record of 32-47 while coaching the Billikens, is one of only nine active coaches to have hit the plateau and one of only seven to do it while coaching the same team.
“There are too many celebrations of 700 to keep track of,” Albrecht said. “It’s very confusing for the average person. It’s like—‘this guy, he can’t remember that he won 700 last year. He’s getting old so they have to do it every year to remind him.’”
Since taking the men’s head coaching position 35 years ago at STLCC-Meramec in 1977, and continue as the STLCC Archer men’s basketball coach at STLCC-Forest Park, Albrecht has coached over 400 student athletes.
Being married for about 45 years, his wife Linda Albrecht has sat through over 1,000 junior college basketball games cheering him on.
“He does leave [high anxiety moments] out on the court,” Linda Albrecht said. “Mentally he may be thinking about it but he handles it very well.”
In 1985, the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) instituted divisions and STLCC basketball was placed in Division II. Since then, Albrecht has led his teams to 27 consecutive winning seasons.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is the consistency of the winning seasons,” Albrecht said. “We haven’t won a national championship, but we’ve gone to the tournament. We’re averaging 20 wins a year. That’s about a normal year—20-11. To do that for 27 straight years of that kind of average is a testament that we [as a staff] do have some kind of plan. We have an idea of what kind of kids we need and how to coach them when they come.”
While never picturing himself still on the sidelines in the year 2012, Albrecht still has a love for the game.
“Years ago I used to think—the year 2000 will be a celebration. That’s the year I ought to retire,” Albrecht said. “I would have never believed I would still be here… It’s still been a lot of fun and it beats work.”
