Bob Cimmino is a high school basketball legend in Westchester County. Just a few weeks ago, his coaching legacy grew even larger when his Mount Vernon team defeated Scarsdale. That victory was his 500th win as Mount Vernon’s coach.

Bob has led the team for 24 seasons. He is just the fourth boys basketball coach in the county to reach the 500-win milestone, and he did it in the fewest games (593) than all the others. He is about 70 victories behind Section 1’s all-time coaching wins leader.

The total number of wins, however, is not important to Bob. The team win always is the achievement. Rather than add up his individual wins as a coach, Bob prefers, as a team, to win the section each season. Already, under his leadership, Mount Vernon has won 16 Section 1 titles and a record seven state championships. Team wins and coaching wins, though, kind of go hand-in-hand.

In anticipation of the milestone, Bob’s assistant coach organized a gathering of friends and former players. Though the game was played at Scarsdale High School, the rival made sure that the bleachers behind the Mount Vernon bench were pulled out fully so that everyone could sit and cheer for the team and Bob.

The game was a close one, with a harrowing fourth quarter. The final score was 72-68. The victory was considered a Bob Cimmino community win and that was exactly the way the coach wanted it.

Bob was in a bad mood for a while during the game but he finally smiled at the buzzer. He later joked that he and his coaches were heading to the best steakhouse in Manhattan to celebrate. Actually, though, he preferred to be surrounded by his players. No different than any other time during the last 24 years.

Few local athletes have separated themselves from the pack at such a young age as Katelyn Tuohy. She is a 15-year-old sophomore runner at North Rockland High School who performed incredibly at the Virginia Showcase during January.

A website that follows the country’s high school runners indicated that Katelyn “put the world on notice” with her performance. A video commentator at the event declared that people would remember where they were when they first heard Katelyn’s time.

Katelyn ran the indoor 5,000 meters (standard 5K) in 15 minutes 37.12 seconds. In a meet that attracted many of the country’s top prep runners, the second place runner finished more than two minutes later. Katelyn’s time broke the U.S. girls high school record and the U.S. record for girls under 20. She set a world record for 15-year-old girls.

This occurred indoors. During outdoor season last fall, Katelyn was ranked as the country’s top female cross country runner. That ranking appeared before she won the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon with a record time for the course.

Katelyn has been running since third grade. She shrugged all of this off and indicated that her training hit sort of a speed bump this winter. She said that, with the constant snow, she frequently had to pick up a shovel.

Similar to snow, more records will fall at Katelyn’s feet in the months and years ahead. Remember that you first heard about her right here.