Mike Ruane’s Berks basketball roots run deep, remain fruitful

Mike Ruane can give you 400 reasons for his success as a college basketball coach:

Lloyd Wolf . . . Rick Binder . . . Joe Palacz. . . Mike DePaul . . . Ed Kuhn . . . Mike Miller . . .Herb Magee . . .

Ruane can offer 400 reasons he has lasted so long in the game, and at the same institution:

Rod Hand . . . Mike Zuber . . . Chris Gery . . . Reggie Weiss . . . Joe Habakus. . . Kevin Calabria . . .

He can count 400 reasons he’s been able to live out his lifelong dream as a basketball coach:

Dick Flannery . . . Mike Archie. . . Dick Stitzel. . . Mike Schorn . . . Dave Becker . . . Scott
Charles.

His long list of basketball influencers reads like a Who’s Who of Berks County basketball; his life was touched by a series of strong role models who helped him develop the love and appreciation for the game he has shared with a generation of his own players.

He reflected back on his many mentors after winning his 400th game as head basketball coach at the University of Bridgeport earlier this month.

The 54-year-old Ruane grew up in the Gov. Mifflin school district and played basketball and other sports at Holy Name and Alvernia. He’s never really left Berks County despite spending the past three decades coaching elsewhere, the last 22 of them at Bridgeport.

His Berks basketball roots run deep and keep him connected.

“I always say, without strong roots there’s no flowers and no leaves,” said Ruane, now one of just 40 active coaches at the NCAA Division II level with 400 or more victories.

He reached the milestone with an 82-79 win over American International College on Jan. 13, improving his record to 400-215. He ranks second in program history in wins.

The people Ruane played for, with and against shaped the values and thoughts he shares each day with the Purple Knights. Every time he addresses his players his words are influenced by what he learned from Wolf, Flannery or the legendary Magee, his boss for two seasons at Philadelphia Textile (now Jefferson University).

“(They affect) how I deal with players, how I make decisions,” said Ruane, who has taken the Purple Knights to 11 NCAA Tournaments — most in East Coast Conference history — four league championships and five regular season league titles.

“I don’t get in guys’ faces,” Ruane said of his style. “I coach with respect. Those guys (I learned from) had so much respect (for you), and (still) they could motivate you. You didn’t want to disappoint them. I had such great role models. They put me in a position where I am today.”

Ruane was just 6 years old when he lost his dad, Jimmy. He needed something and someone to cling to. He found it in sports and the men who taught him how to play, such as Palacz, Archie and DePaul, his earliest coaches. He looked up to them; it’s no coincidence he became a coach himself.

All of this would’ve seemed unlikely 35 years ago. Ruane enrolled at Alvernia after graduating high school in 1985 but admittedly wasn’t disciplined enough to juggle the academics and sports. He flunked out. He transferred to Edinboro for a year to work on academics.

Realizing he still wanted to play he asked Hand, the Alvernia coach, for a second chance; he was given one and found a path that would take him through his life.

“Rod Hand gave me a scholarship,” Ruane said. “I had no other schools (interested in me). I would have never gone to college without Rod Hand coming in. It was like a do-over for me. When I came back to Alvernia I was ready to give 100 percent and to learn.”

After playing for Hand and Binder he was offered a chance to coach the Holy Name freshman team in 1991-92 while completing his undergraduate degree.

“It’s the people who say yes in your life (that make a difference),” Ruane said, “and Lloyd said yes. That was the start.”

His first team went 16-0; he was hooked as a coach.

After one year at Holy Name he was back in school, at Temple, to earn a master’s degree in sports athletic administration. He began his college coaching career in 1994 and was an assistant for six seasons, at West Virginia Wesleyan, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Philadelphia Textile. By age 33 was a head coach.

Wolf, his first boss, left a lasting impression.

“His demeanor, his sportsmanship and his class really stuck with me,” Ruane said. “To this day I still think of how Lloyd got us ready to play Reading High, Wilson or Gov. Mifflin. When I’m ready to give a big speech, I still think about his energy.”

Ruane still uses drills he learned playing for Binder at Alvernia.

He still draws on the passion displayed by Zuber, his JV coach at Holy Name.

He reminds his players each day to have fun and love the game, because they won’t be able to play it forever.

He shares the lesson Wolf shared with so many summer campers about what the game can do for you. For Ruane, it provided an education and gave his life direction.

He’s spent decades trying provide that for others.

“I’m concerned about taking care of my guys,” he said. “This has been my dream, to run my own program, to be a head coach and be a mentor to these guys, like a father.”

His mom, Jeananne, gave him the best life advice he could have hoped for.

“She told me: ‘Do whatever makes you happy,’ ” Ruane said. “Coaching basketball made me happy.”