This past Tuesday with his team's 52-48 come from behind victory over Farmington Hills Harrison, Tom Negoshian, North Farmington's longtime head boys basketball coach, eclipsed the 300-win plateau. Negoshian, one of the true class acts and master tacticians roaming the sidelines in the local prep sports scene for the last three decades, won his 300th game last week in the Motor City Roundball Classic when the Raiders beat Dearborn Heights Robichaud 63-47.
Playing high school basketball himself at Pontiac Central for legendary head coach Ralph Grubb, Negoshian played his college ball at Ferris State before starting his coaching career at OCC and St Mary's College.
Taking over the North Farmington program in 1984, he coached the Raiders until 1994 when he left to coach his son and current assistant coach Todd at Walled Lake Central. Upon Todd's graduation in 1998 following an all-state career as a four-year starting varsity point guard for the Vikings, Negoshian returned to North Farmington and has since turned the Raiders into perennial contenders for league and district titles and one of the toughest teams to game plan for in the area.
In his time at North Farmington, he has racked up six district championships and raised five conference title banners. On three separate occasions in the last 10 years, Negoshian was named his league's Coach of the Year.
The 2010-2011 season has been a pleasant surprise for TEAM NOGO and co., and the rest of the county for that matter, so far. Losing the bulk of their lineup from last year's district championship squad, including all-state point guard Kyle Vinales, the Raiders have shot out of the gate playing fantastic ball led by a riveting youth movement and the much-improved Urbane Bingham, a potential all-state candidate in the post.
After Tuesday's defeat of Harrison, North Farmington is 6-1. This season could wind up being Negoshian's best coaching job in recent memory. And that's saying A LOT!! Under his guidance, JV call-ups Dorrell Foster, Caleb Hogans and Sterling Sharp have already developed into rock steady "OAA Red starters" and possible future stars if they keep improving. Bingham, a transfer from Birmingham Detroit Country Day, has gone from a talented big guy with tons of potential to a DOMINANT interior presence only equaled in the area by his former teammate at DCD Amir Williams, who will most-likely be selected a McDonalds All-American.
A couple final thoughts on Coach NOGO:
I would have loved to play for this guy!!! He is truly one of the great basketball minds in the state and a man who honestly cares just as much about molding first-class human beings as he does about putting out superior cage talent. It might sound crazy, but that's really a rare combination these days.
Here's to Nogo and to winning another 300 before it's all said and done!
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