Portsmouth Coach Eugene Collins Gets Win #200

[trojandave]

CONGRATULATIONS to Portsmouth Trojans coach Eugene Collins for getting win #200 with a 68-54 victory over Mars Hill Academy on Tuesday. Coach Collins is in his 14th season at PHS, and thus far has compiled a record of 200-128. He has averaged a record of 14-9 during this time, which is very close to Portsmouth's all time average of 15-8. He led the Trojans to back to back Final 4's in 2011 and 2012, and currently has more Final 4 appearances than any other active SE district coach. He also guided PHS to the regional finals in 2015.

He has been named the SEOAL Coach of the Year and the D3 State Coach of the Year in 2012. His last 4 teams in the SEOAL (2011-2014) finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 1st in the league. Portsmouth won the OVC in its very first year of competition in 2015. 3 times his teams won at least 20 games, in 2011 (21-5), 2012 (24-3), and 2015 (20-7). He is 5-0 vs. Chesapeake, Ironton, and Wheelersburg in regional play.

Coach Collins took over a Portsmouth program that had just experienced 7 straight losing seasons. He immediately turned the fortunes of the Trojans around, going 12-7 in 2010. That season he had wins at Warren and at Wheelersburg, a home win over Chesapeake, which made the D3 state tourney that season, and ended with a win over SEOAL champion Ironton the last game of the regular season. Then came a fabulous run of Trojan basketball which saw PHS win at least 16 games in 7 of the next 8 years, with the best mark being a 24-3 record in 2012. That mark stands as the 2nd best all time for Trojan basketball, topped only by the 27-1 record of the 1988 D2 state champions.

5 of his players scored at least 1,000 points for their careers. Dion McKinley, Wayne Evans, Kyre Allison, Matthew Fraulini, and Kendal Reynolds all reached that milestone. Allison scored 1,688 points for his career which is #1 in PHS history.

Collins has also taken 4 of his teams to the KSA tournament in Orlando, Florida over the Christmas Holiday. PHS is 8-4 in the 4 trips, and won the outright title 1 year. Just this past Sunday he took the team to see the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis.

He is only 24 wins behind Portsmouth's all time leading winning coach, George Heller, who guided the Trojans from 1952-1968. Heller compiled a record of 224-137 and his 1961 team won the Big School state title in 1961.

Collins is a 1983 graduate of Portsmouth HS, and he is fondly remembered as a player for his game winning buzzer beater vs. Columbus East in 1983. He was a long time assistant to Jim Arnzen at Shawnee State before taking the Portsmouth job.

[danicalifornia]

Congratulations to Coach Collins! And thank you for the great write up, it’s nice to see more about his career.

[trojandave]

Thanks, danicalifornia.

[VetteMan]

Congrats Coach Collins on your 200th win.

trojandave, not just because danicalifornia said it, but it was an excellent writeup for Coach Collins.

[Whs95fan]

Congrats coach, thanks for the update trojandave.

[Ironman92]

Coach Collins has been one of my favorite coaches to watch from my seat in Jackson’s gym. I feel he has been great for the young men at Portsmouth over the years.

[Hoopie74]

Congratulations Coach. Keep on teaching.

[pfloyd]

Congratulations Coach Collins on reaching the #200 win milestone ! and not just 200 wins - lots and lots of meaningful wins! , league, sectional, district, regional W's ... Coach Collins' teaching/coaching has taken Trojan young men where other programs/coaches only dream of taking their teams/players/communities ... well done Coach Collins - great milestone reached - hopefully you continue coaching as what we see DURING the season is only part of what you do - I see the impact you make on social media in the off season - the youngsters in the Portsmouth area need you Coach. - pfloyd

[BigBlueNation]

Congrats.

[wipala]

Congrats from the ole Trojan in Arizona! On to 300

[Lovehoops1]

Congratulations coach it has been fun to sit and watch you work on many occasions

[PopeSnoopDogThe1st]

Congratulations to Coach Collins. Coach Collins is a class act, very humble and genuinely nice guy. Aside from being a great coach, he is a very important person to his community as a mentor and ambassador for Portsmouth. As a coach at RH, I always enjoy speaking with him before and after our games, he’s just a great and humble person.

[bfry]

Had the awesome privilege of playing for Geno at Shawnee State. He was and still is one of my favorite coaches to play for. Not only a great x and o guy, but also as a communicator to his players. His son Len was just a little fella running around the court at practice. Congratulations coach!

[trojandave]

I anticipate a special recognition of Coach Collins' 200 wins tonight before the Ironton varsity game. He certainly deserves it.