Harry Jenkins was one of the most successful coaches in the WPIAL for 25 years.

And all of those seasons were spent on the bench at Fox Chapel Area High School, where he collected 327 wins, 14 WPIAL playoff appearances, five PIAA appearances, a pair of section championships and two WPIAL championship game appearances.

He was a four-time Valley News Dispatch "Coach of the Year," and was also a Dapper Dan Roundball Classic coach.

"I was surprised when I learned I would be inducted into the FC Sports Hall of Fame," Jenkins said. "I've been involved with organizing it for a while and I didn't think I'd get in this soon. I'm very pleased."

Jenkins played basketball at Edinboro and was a captain in his junior and senior years. "My coach in college and my high school coach were both very influential in my decision to go into coaching. I was hoping to coach after graduation. It was in my blood."

Jenkins began coaching at Fox Chapel immediately after being hired as a teacher and he coached ninth grade for seven years and JVs for three.

"I coached most of the players on the Fox Chapel team that went all the way in 1977 when they were in intermediate school. They were a great and dedicated group of kids."

Jenkins fondly remembers his two teams that made it to the WPIAL Championship game -- the 1988 team and the 1998 team.

"They were teams that overachieved. We had a lot of fine young men that worked hard and persevered. It was a pleasure to work with them."

Jenkins feels that a lot of the success of all of his teams was due to the overachieving.

"We had some players that were talented and went on to Division 1 like Dave Ostrosky, Eric Nelson and Eric Hegedus, but for the most part we had a lot of driven individuals who wanted to be successful on the court."

Jenkins also remembers who he feels was probably the best player he coached against -- Drew Schifino of Penn Hills.

"The kid was just amazing. He caused us so many problems for four years. We tried everything and nothing would work.He was as good as anybody we played against. He was phenomenal.

"I have nothing but fond memories of all my time coaching at Fox Chapel.

Those days remain some of the best times of my life."

For information on the June 1 Hall of Fame banquet, contact Jim Perry at 724 274-9355. For information on the golf outing on May 31, contact Harry Jenkins at 412 767-5380.