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DETROIT (10/16/2014) -- University of Detroit Mercy women's basketball assistant coach Rick Albro added another accolade to his great coaching career as he was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) Hall Of Fame over the weekend.
 
The 2014 Hall of Fame Banquet was held last Sunday, Oct. 12, in Lansing along with the annual BCAM Coaches Clinic. Other inductees on the night included, Gary Bennett (Grosse Pointe North), Keith Haske (St Johns, Charlevoix, Traverse City St. Francis) and Dennis Starkey (Petoskey).
 
"I got the news in June and I was taken aback, honored and humbled," said Coach Albro. "I can remember sitting at the Hall of Fame banquet, and I went there year after year for almost three decades ago, and seeing guys you coached against and just thinking, wow what an honor to be recognized and honored by your peers. The thing that always stuck with me was not their wins, but their duration and the respect everyone had for them."
 
Albro has spent most of his time coaching in the Great Lakes State after his graduation from Western Michigan in 1971. Eight of his nine coaching stops have been in the state of Michigan as he has been a head coach for both boys and girls basketball in high school, a head coach for men's basketball in college as well as an assistant at two Division I women's basketball programs.
 
His 40 years of coaching have included over 450 career wins in high school and college, but to Coach Albro, the ability to make a difference and help someone is more meaningful than any one victory he might have gained.
 
"More than any win I ever had, there was a young man I recruited to Aquinas College. He was recruited by some small division one's, the entire GLIAC and I didn't have a full ride to give him. I told him, if you come here, you are going to leave with a degree. He came, got his degree and is now an elementary school principle. He never knew his father and his mother had passed away and a couple of years ago, he got married and he asked my wife and I to be his parents at his wedding and nothing comes close to that. We beat Duke, who was a No. 1 seed and it was my scout at MSU, but nothing comes close to that experience, that impact you can make on someone," said Coach Albro. 
 
Coach Albro got his start in coaching at St. Charles (Mich.) High School, where he served as the head golf coach and JV basketball coach for three years and the athletic director for two years before moving onto Marlette (Mich.) High School, coaching the boys' varsity basketball team from 1974-78 in addition to being the athletic director.
 
He then went to East Grand Rapids High School (1978-90), coaching both the boys and girls basketball team. At East Grand Rapids, Coach Albro's boy's program won four conference, six district and three regional titles, and a made trip to the state tournament semifinals.
 
He then made the jump to the college ranks as the head men's coach at Aquinas College from 1990-2003. He became the winningest coach in Aquinas history and was named the Wolverine Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Coach of the Year after setting a school record with a 23-10 mark in 1999-2000, He also twice earned NAIA District Coach of the Year honors.
 
"I looked around the room at the (BCAM) banquet and there was a time that I knew say eight out of every 10 coaches there and in the state. I look around and saw so many new faces and just makes you appreciate and reflect on your career," added Coach Albro.
 
After a stop at Cleveland State from 2003-06 as a Vikings' men's basketball assistant coach for the Division I program, he came back to Michigan to coach the boys team at Grandville High School for a year and then returned to college as an assistant women's basketball coach with Michigan State from 2007-10. In those three years, he helped the Spartans to three-straight 20-win campaigns, a WNIT runner-up effort and two NCAA Tournament appearances with a Sweet 16 run in 2009.
 
Prior to his arrival in the Motor City, he was as an athletic director at Northview High School in Grand Rapids for four years and was the girls basketball coach for the last three.
 
He has been involved in a number of camps and clinics over the years and was the founder of the Michigan Camp of Champions, a residential basketball camp for high school boys and girls, attended by more than 4,000 athletes a year.