Legendary Brockton High boys basketball coach Victor Ortiz remembered as a winner

In dedication, his name is printed on both sides of the court inside Arthur Staff Gymnasium at Brockton High. Under legendary boys basketball coach Victor Ortiz, the Boxers won big.

"Victor just took the ball and ran with it," said John Boutin, the varsity coach Ortiz succeeded in 1983 after spending five years as an assistant. "The program was just terrific from that point forward and people didn’t want to play Brockton because they were that good."

After a long illness, Ortiz died peacefully at his home on Monday. He was 74.

In 24 years as head coach, Ortiz finished with a 385-160 record (second-most wins in school history, behind Staff) and led the Boxers to five sectional titles and one state championship, in 1985. He spent a total of 31 years with the program until he retired in 2007. The court was named in his honor in January, 2020.

During that 31-year stretch, Ortiz also worked as a guidance counselor in the Brockton Public School system.

“He was a great man and you just can’t imagine all the things he did for, not just for athletes, but, because he was a guidance counselor, all his students and their families. He just did so much for our community,” said Boutin. “I can’t say enough about him. He was one hell of a man."

“There’s hardly anybody who didn’t get along with Victor Ortiz," added Boutin. "He was that kind of guy.”

Ortiz was inducted into the Brockton High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2012. He also was enshrined in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

A landmark in program history, Ortiz led the 1984-85 Boxers to the Div. 1 state title to cap off a 24-1 season. The lone loss came to rival Cambridge Rindge and Latin -- led by future Michigan guard Rumeal Robinson, who later became a first-round draft pick of the Atlanta Hawks in 1990 -- on the road by a 71-58 score. The Boxers eventually avenged that defeat by winning the postseason rematch, 65-63.

Headlined by captains Pat Boen and Odell Wilson starting in the backcourt, Brockton also received valuable contributions from center Curtis Jackson, forward Michael Shelby and forward Danny Anglin, who sealed the win over Cambridge Rindge and Latin with a 3-pointer banked in at the buzzer.

“They were an amazing team,” said Mike Thomas, the Superintendent of Brockton Schools who was a sophomore on the JV team at the time. “They were incredible. Great guys and great role models to look up to as a sophomore, and Vic did a great job coaching them, obviously. They beat the top-notch teams to win that state title.”

Brockton rolled over Silver Lake (98-65 win), Taunton (51-35) and Xaverian (93-82) and then edged Cambridge Rindge and Latin (65-63) and Fitchburg (56-53) for the title. It’s widely considered the greatest team assembled in program history.

“Victor was a very fiery coach. Always gave great pep talks pregame,” said Bob Boen, the team’s "co-head coach", as Ortiz once said for a story in The Enterprise in 2019, whose official label was assistant coach for all of Ortiz's 24 seasons. “They were always great defensive teams. Everybody was working so, so hard on that defense when Victor was coaching. Very fired up. That team in ‘85, of course they were all very loyal to Victor.”

Ortiz took the head coaching job in 1983, after Boutin transitioned to run the Brockton-based Bay State Bombardiers of the Continental Basketball Association. Ortiz had been Boutin’s assistant for five years, ever since Boutin took the head job in 1978.

“He was my first choice (to replace me),” Boutin said. “And he couldn’t have been a better choice."

“(Ortiz) was a defensive-oriented coach, far more than myself,” added Boutin, who later oversaw the program under Ortiz’s watch as Brockton High’s athletic director from 2004-2008. “So when I received a player coming up from the JV level, I didn’t have to spend a lot of time working on their defensive capabilities. And we built on that, he and I … Between the two of us, I thought we laid a great groundwork."

Thomas was not on the varsity team for the 1985 title run but he often did the scorebook. He was promoted from the JV squad as a junior in 1986, and became a starting guard as a senior in 1987. He estimated the team suffered merely 12 losses in his four-year high school career, spear-headed by Ortiz’s defense-first philosophy and rigorous preparation.

“He never gave a practice off. We would have long, long practices. I think we’d stay three hours sometimes. He would have one more thing to go over. After a while, I’d say, ‘Coach, we have to go home,’" Boen recalled with a laugh. “He just loved to practice. He would stay forever. ... I remember when John Boutin took over the (Bay State) Bombardiers. They’d come in to practice after and Victor would have us put on a show for them with our guys. He certainly put in the time.”

“He had it all mapped out to the minute for the two hours you practiced for. He used to keep an index card with what drill you were going to do for how much time,” said Thomas. “There was no such thing as taking a practice off. His saying was, ‘You play how you practice.’ So practices were tough and because we had so many great players, they were competitive. He thrived off of that. He made you work for everything.”

Ortiz was born in East Chicago, Indiana in 1948 but grew up in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, where he graduated from Santo Tomas High School in 1967. He then enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in Vietnam, but left in 1971 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Stonehill College and a Master’s degree in Counseling from Boston College.

Ortiz expected a similar academic effort from his players.

“He always made sure you were a student-athlete. And ‘student’ was always first,” said Thomas. “He obviously wanted to see you succeed as a basketball player, but it was more important for you to succeed in the classroom first. ... He held you to a high standard of grades and character.

“He spent a lot of time preparing you for life. Not just basketball.”

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Victor Ortiz, Brockton High basketball legend, remembered as a winner