East Hampton Hoops Coaching Legend Ed Petrie Dies

He was known simply as “Coach.”Ed Petrie, who spent more than four decades leading the East Hampton boys basketball program and became the winningest boys hoops coach in New York State public school history, died on Sunday after a sudden illness. He was 82 years old.

Petrie began his legendary stint on the Bonac sidelines—and on the court that is named after him—in 1969, after 10 years as a physical education teacher and basketball and baseball coach at nearby Pierson High School in Sag Harbor.

East Hampton emerged as a powerhouse in the 1970s under Petrie’s guidance, amassing a 62-4 record from 1975 to 1978. In the 1976-77 season, the Bonackers, led by stars Howard Wood and Kenny Carter, beat Albertus Magnus in the Southeast Regional Final to cap a 22-1 season, in an era before the New York State Tournament, as it is known today, existed.

Petrie guided East Hampton to its first official state championship in 1989, and, in 2008 and 2009, his teams advanced to the state tournament, losing in the championship game in 2008. The Bonackers also won the overall Suffolk County Championship in both of those years, an almost unheard of achievement for a smaller East End school.

The Bonackers were 67-6 from 2007 to 2009, his last season. He announced his retirement in 2010.

Petrie is widely recognized as a basketball genius, and has the statistics to back it up. He’s won more games (754) than any other public high school boys basketball coach in state history, and both former players and opposing coaches speak of his uncanny ability to make in-game adjustments—whether it was creating what he referred to as “junk” defenses that would fluster opposing teams and turn the tide of games, or getting marginal players to overachieve.

His legacy extends beyond teaching the finer points of free-throw shooting form and other fundamentals, according to those who know him best.

“He was a great man,” said Wood, who had a successful college career at the University of Tennessee before playing professionally for several years overseas. “Everyone knew him as ‘Coach,’ but he was a lot more than that. He taught us a lot. We always say he has two sons with the last name Petrie, but he has dozens of other ones. He was always there for us.”

Indeed, Petrie was always there for Wood and hundreds of other students and basketball players during his long career as a phys ed teacher and coach in East Hampton, never leaving for greener collegiate or professional pastures, despite clearly having the knowledge and expertise to do so.

“I think he loved kids and loved coaching young men and developing them as athletes,” Wood said. “I think he got satisfaction out of that.”

Scott Rubenstein, who was a defensive standout on the 1977 championship team, said that Petrie lived his life in a way that provided a blueprint for his own. “He was so dedicated to what he did,” he said. “He taught you that whatever you do, you do it the best you can and without excuses. He truly found something he liked, and it was important for him to do the best he could. He had such an influence on so many kids.

“I’m in a career I’ve kept for my whole life, and I’ve been married for 30 years, and I really believe that understanding dedication and focus and staying with what you do and not giving up on it are things that coach taught us,” Rubenstein added.

Rubenstein and Wood both spoke about Petrie’s enduring commitment to his players—how he treated starters and back-ups the same, and instilled in each player the importance of his particular role on the team, or how he’d travel more than an hour up-island just to find a restaurant or bar with satellite TV so he could watch a former player’s college game.

Wood said that Petrie made the trip to the University of Tennessee every year to see him play. Both former players also recalled how Petrie would spend his time running open gym in the summer, and in the early morning hours before school started.

“He’d stop by the playground when we were playing,” Rubenstein said. “He wouldn’t say anything—he’d just stop by on his bike.

“He made you feel important,” he added. “He made you feel good. I feel so lucky to have played for him, and that both of my sons played for him.”

Petrie was highly regarded by other coaches and players, a fact Rubenstein said was obvious to him during his playing days. “We knew, when we went to any game, we’d talk to other players, and it was something special that he was our coach,” he said. “You felt like you had that little edge going in, because you had someone that people respected as a professional in the sport.”

Petrie’s sons, Ed Petrie Jr. and Michael Petrie, played for their father in the 1970s, and Petrie Jr. said their father’s legacy within the East Hampton community cannot be overstated. “Every kid who grew up in East Hampton and Sag Harbor from 1959 until he retired played for him or was in his phys ed class. Everybody knows him and everybody respected him.”

That sentiment is comforting to Ed Petrie’s wife, Nancy Petrie.

“Ed was loved and respected by everyone who knew him,” she said. “His concern for those he cared deeply about was at the core of his values. I’m so grateful for our years together, and the community’s response lets me know that so many others share a profound and personal sense of loss. We were all lucky that he was in our lives.”

At some point, the specifics of Petrie’s brilliant offensive plays or spur-of-the-moment defensive adjustments will be forgotten. The enduring aspect of his legacy, however, will remain.

“To me, the basketball was secondary,” Petrie Jr. said of his father. “It was more about him being my dad. And for him, it was the relationships he had with kids and players.”

Petrie is survived by his wife, Nancy Petrie, and his four children, Ed Petrie Jr., Michael Petrie, Miriam Petrie and Cindy Petrie; grandchildren James Petrie, Shannon Petrie and Michael Russell; stepchildren Sue Morris, Joanna Brinker and Karen McQuiston; and seven step-granddaughters.

Services are scheduled for Thursday, May 28, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. In lieu of flowers, the Petrie family has asked for donations to be made to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons.