VISTA — Pat Moramarco is going out the way he came in — a winner.
After 27 years as girls basketball coach at Vista High School, Moramarco is retiring after a 65-30 Avocado League win over Canyon Crest Academy on Friday night.
Vista finishes the regular season 10-16, 4-4 in the league. Canyon Crest Academy finishes 3-21, 0-8.
With Vista’s CIF San Diego Section Division 2 playoff hopes very much on the bubble, the Panthers’ final home game of the season could mark the last of Moramarco’s career.
Game No. 1 was a win over Mira Mesa. Game No. 882 was also a win.
His 100th triumph was against Mira Mesa, No. 200 was against San Marcos, No. 300 against La Costa Canyon and No. 400 was vs. Hoover.
His record stands at 446-436, eighth all-time in San Diego County behind Terri Bamford (La Jolla Country Day), Jay Trousdale (Poway), Wade Vickery (Santana), Robbie Sandoval (Mount Miguel/Lincoln), Ray Jindra (Hilltop), Peggy Brose (Rancho Bernardo) and Marlon Wells (San Diego/Bishop’s).
“It has been a great ride, but it’s time,” said Moramarco, 61, who is also retiring at the end of the school year as a teacher.
“For sure, the wins are great, but most of all, I cherish the relationships with the players and coaches.”
A number of those assistant coaches, including Scotty Boyins and former Vista track and cross country star Trevor Seibert, were on hand Friday.
“I really didn’t know that much about coaching,” Seibert said. “But Pat saw something in me, and welcomed me onto his staff. Working with him was a great experience.”
And a large number of former players were in the crowd, including 1996 CIF Player of the Year Courtney Bale, who played collegiately at San Diego State and Ohio State.
“Pat let me play,” Bale said. “He saw a tall player, put me on the low block and said I’d be a star.
“I wanted to shoot 3-pointers, but Pat’s coaching, his encouragement, made me the player I became, got me to college.”
Junior Isabella Mosley, who came into the game averaging 16.6 points per game, was the star of Friday’s win.
She finished with 24 points, hitting five 3-pointers, including a half-court shot at the end of the first quarter.
“Coach pushes us, but only because he wants us to be good,” Mosley said. “He yells at me, but it’s because he wants me to be a better player. He says he likes to put us in an oven and sees how we rise. He introduces us to new things, things we hadn’t learned before.
“He’s a special person, not just a great coach.”
Moramarco’s teams have won three league titles, a San Diego Section championship in 1994, defeating Poway 51-41. The Panthers lost in the title game twice 48-46 to Rancho Bernardo in 1996 and 61-55 to Olympian in 2018. In 2016, he won the Golden Apple Award — the Vista District’s highest award. In 2020, he was given the CIF Model Coach Award. And last season, he was named the Girls Basketball State Coach of the Year.
Moramarco said he’d like one of his assistants to succeed him, but its it’s not his call.
“I want to travel,” he said. “I’d like to see Italy and Greece. “And I’ve never been to New York or Boston. I recently started biking, so we’ll see where that leads. And I’ll coach bton this spring, so they can’t get rid of me just yet.”
