Amelia head coach Craig Mazzaro watches intently during the Barons’ win over Bethel-Tate.
Amelia head coach Craig Mazzaro watches intently during the Barons’ win over Bethel-Tate.

By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

Amelia High School boys’ head basketball coach Craig Mazzaro reached the 200-win mark following the Barons’ 69-36 rout of interdivisional rival Williamsburg on Jan. 3.

The milestone win was originally thought to have come on Tuesday, Jan. 7 against Clermont Northeastern, but after going back through the records, Mazzaro and the school figured out that the big win had already happened.

“We came out and played our game, played a good game and hit some shots,” Mazzaro said of history-clinching victory. “(The 200th win) was actually when we beat Williamsburg. When we calculated them up, we thought it was CNE, but it actually came against Williamsburg.”

The Barons shot 52 percent from the field and 60 percent from behind the arc in the blowout win. Keegan Carson led all scorers with 20 points on 7-9 shooting, including knocking down all four of his 3-point attempts.

Garrett Weaver and Mason Blankenship also scored in double figures for Amelia in the 33-point win.

Mazzaro is in his 17th season with the Barons despite starting coaching there in 1992. After about eight years of coaching, Mazzaro took two off and eventually took two more off before coming back into the fray in recent years to climb the all-time wins list.

Like most coaches bestowed with an honor, Mazzaro deflected praise to the guys who were on the floor and in return, they reached out to him when they heard the news.

“I’ve had a lot of good guys through the years,” he said. “The coolest thing about the whole thing was that I heard from a whole bunch of them after they found out we won 200 games. They filled up my phone and e-mail.”

The coach said he has been fortunate to have hard-working teams each season that he has been at the helm and this year is no different.

“This team is a lot like the other ones I’ve had,” the coach said. “I’ve always had our best players be our hardest workers and that’s the case this year with Tom Hacker; he’s always the first one there, the last one to leave.

“Our guys have always bought in to what we’re doing and that’s just a tribute to all of them and this year’s team is the same way.”

The Barons are currently 9-1 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Buckeye Conference’s American Division, a game and a half back of league-leading New Richmond.

Amelia is in the midst of a seven-game winning streak and hosted National Division contenders Batavia on Tuesday night.

The Barons travel to Blanchester on Friday, Jan. 17 and Campbell County on Saturday, Jan. 18 before getting back into conference play with a showdown against Western Brown on Jan. 24.