LINDEN, NJ- Phil Colicchio turned Linden into a powerhouse program throughout his tenure at the helm of the varsity basketball team in his 21 seasons as head coach at the school located on 121 West St. Georges Avenue, competing with the best programs in the state of New Jersey.That run officially came to an end on Thursday, June 21, 2018. Colicchio was approved as the new head boys basketball coach at Elizabeth High School at a Board of Education meeting the same night in Elizabeth.Colicchio, a 1984 Elizabeth High School graduate, will be working for athletic director Ben Candelino, the man who coached him in high school and who helped him get his coaching career started.“There was a change in the athletic administration, we just weren’t seeing eye-to-eye,” Colicchio said. “After 20 years of having success that we’ve had there [in Linden], I wanted to feel happy and I wanted to feel appreciated.”With a new chapter in his coaching career ready to go, Colicchio reflected upon a challenge ahead, to turn Elizabeth around into a winning program. The Minutemen finished last season with a 7-17 record.“When I walked in there the day I got the job, the gym was empty, bleachers were closed and I was like, ‘This gym felt like being in a college,’” he added. “It was incredible, it’s a beautiful gym. My goal is to fill that place up.”“I lived literally right around the block [from Elizabeth High School],” Colicchio said. “I grew up on South Broad Street, two blocks away from where the Dunn Sports Center [at Elizabeth High School] is now.”He admits the decision to leave Linden, a program he led and the basketball players over the years, including Desmond Wade, Otis Livingston Jr., Khalief Crawford, Tavon Jones and Mikey Watkins, wasn’t easy.Approaching his assistant coaches and returning players of his decision to leave was probably the hardest part of leaving, he admits.“Without a doubt, it’s the kids. They’re the ones who get affected by it,” Colicchio said. “I’ve received millions of phone calls from former players. They understand and they’ve said, ‘As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.’ I talked to junior Amir Williams [of Linden] personally and told him, ‘I’m always going to be your coach even though I’m not your coach.’ I also told him with anything about college or life, I’m a phone call away.”“I work in the city of Linden, I absolutely love the kids there, the regular administration and the city administration,” he said.Colicchio adds the passion for Linden basketball from the fans will be another feature of the environment of the gym he will miss the most as he moves on to Elizabeth.“The greatest fans in the state, that’s going to be hard to duplicate,” he said of the Linden fans. “In Linden, we had such an advantage with our fans. You walk right into that gym and they’re on top of you.”“In my second or third year, we were playing in a Christmas Tournament in Maine, which is a ten-hour drive,” he added when discussing the passion of Linden basketball fans. “I was walking out of hotel to get something to eat and saw seven fans. I was like, ‘What are you guys doing here?’ They said, ‘Coach, we came up to see the tournament.’The Tigers won back-to-back Group 4 championships in 2016 and 2017, with Colicchio winning his 400th career game in the 2016 victory over Atlantic City at Rutgers University on Sunday, March 13, 2016.Last season, Linden finished with a 22-7 record and returned to the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 Sectional Final, but lost to Newark East Side 57-52 on March 5.Throughout his tenure in Linden, the accolades achieved with him at the helm was massive, including 450 wins throughout his tenure as head coach.According to an article on Union News Daily, under Colicchio, Linden’s success over the years includes nine sectional championships (2000, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), six group championships (2000, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2016, 2017), three county championships (2001, 2007, 2015) and three appearances in the Tournament of Champions (2006, 2016, 2017), with two appearances in the final in 2006 and 2016.The county championship wins come in a county stacked with talent which features Roselle Catholic, The Patrick School, St. Mary of the Assumption and Union Catholic.“In order to have a rivalry, you need to be able to beat good teams,” Colicchio said. “We’ve has rivalries with Roselle Catholic, St. Pat’s [Patrick School]. We beat St. Patrick’s when they were number one in the county. We had some incredible wins.”For Colicchio, the championships aren’t as meaningful as the fans were, who flocked into the gym and filled it up every single night.“Championships speak for themselves,” he said. “The six Group 4 championships, the nine sectionals, that speaks for itself.”“If you looked up in my section behind my bench to the right, you’d see between 20-40 former players there, like professional football player Muhummad Wilkerson (formerly with New York Jets, now Green Bay Packers) coming back to games.”“When I came to Linden 20 years ago, Desmond Wade and Darryl Lampley were two guys who were on my staff. They were great players at Linden. To watch them grow up from campers in my camps to being players, winning back-to-back Group 4 State Championships (2006 and 2007), going on to college and having great careers and back now coaching. That’s what’s really cool about it, [it’s] the relationships with former players.”On Tuesday, January 7, 2014, Linden honored Colicchio, by naming their basketball gym, “Coach Colicchio Court.”If Linden and Elizabeth were to meet, it wouldn’t come in the regular season. Elizabeth was moved to the Union County Conference Mountain Division with Plainfield, out of the Watchung Division, where Linden currently is.A potential meeting between the two schools would either be in the Union County Tournament or the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 playoffs.“The number one rivalry in Union County is Linden and Elizabeth,” Colicchio said. “[A Elizabeth-Linden matchup will] be about Phil Colicchio returning to Linden for about ten seconds and as soon as the ball goes up in the air, all the stuff goes out the window and it’s about Elizabeth going after Linden.”“It’s going to be about the two teams and the two schools and the great rivalry that they’ve always been.”
Heading Back Home: Phil Colicchio Returns to Hometown Elizabeth HS, Leaves Linden with Remarkable Legacy
