Willowbrook Head Boys Basketball Coach earns title of winningest boys basketball coach in school history
For as long as Willowbrook Head Boys Basketball Coach Chris Perkins can remember, the sport has been a part of his life.
After a successful basketball career at Willowbrook (class of 2004) and NCAA Division I school Purdue University Fort Wayne, Perkins wanted to share his love and passion for the sport with other players, and he became the Head Coach at Willowbrook in 2011.
“(Basketball) has done so much for me that I wanted to help others have some of the great experiences I had,” Perkins said. “My high school coach, Mr. Dennis Doyle, played a major role in my teenage years, and I wanted to hopefully have the same impact on others as he had on me. One of the biggest lessons I hope players get from competing is finding out who they are as a person. Throughout the course of a season, a player will face adversity and many obstacles, and how they learn to overcome those challenges will build characteristics that will hopefully carry over to their real life.”
And Perkins is now the winningest boys basketball coach in Willowbrook history, with 153 career wins. He achieved that title on Jan. 7, with a win over Proviso West.
“(Earning this record) means a great deal, as I’ve been part of the Willowbrook Boys Basketball program in one form or another for the past 25 years,” Perkins said. “I was part of the feeder program as a player in the late ’90s, I was a player from 2000 to 2004, I coached during summer camps while in college, I was an assistant coach starting in 2008 and I was named as head coach in 2011.”
Willowbrook Athletic Director Brandon Murphy said reaching that benchmark is an amazing accomplishment.
“It takes a great deal of commitment, effort and skill just to win a single game at the varsity level – especially in our area,” Murphy said. “Success for the Warriors isn’t determined by the wins and losses, but to become the winningest coach in our school’s history is tremendous. There is a lot to be proud of, and a lot of positive things have to line up. Perkins and his staff deserve all the credit – they haven’t just been successful at the varsity level, but all levels. Perkins has led the Warriors for more than a decade; has been named as the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Coach of the Year; and has led the Warriors to multiple invitational championships, Conference titles, a Regional Championship and all the way to the Sectional Finals in 2018. He has coached all three of our 1,000-point scorers as well, and many of his athletes have gone on to compete at the collegiate level.”
Perkins said he didn’t attain this title on his own, and it takes everyone involved working together to reach success.
“The secret to winning is there is no secret,” he said. “You need good to great players, who come together for a single purpose – to improve as a team, which hopefully leads to winning. Along with great players, you need a great coaching staff and a solid feeder program to get athletes playing good competition before they enter their high school years.”
Perkins said a few highlights from his coaching career so far include:
- His first win in 2011
- Defeating Morton at home during the 2014-15 season in a packed house to win Willowbrook’s first Conference title in more than 30 years
- Competing in the Sectional Championship against Benet Academy during the 2017-18 season
He added that his future goals for the team are simple: “Maintain the culture, be as competitive as we can be and leave it all out on the floor.”