Liberty Common players celebrate coach Jim Altergott’s 400th win last Saturday. (Courtesy photo)
Liberty Common boys basketball coach Jim Altergott knew he was sitting at 399 career wins last Saturday. So did athletic director Dan Knab, who had a cake and celebratory posters waiting.
“I think he kind of put the cart before the horse, because we hadn’t had the win yet,” Altergott joked on Friday. “What if we would’ve lost that and he had everything ready to go?”
Fortunately, for the celebration’s sake, the Eagles beat Conifer 61-56. It was Altergott’s 400th win.
“It’s more about the kids than it is me, winning 400,” said Altergott, who has been coaching since 1973. “We knew it was at 399, and we had a couple of other chances to get it, but it didn’t materialize.”
Liberty Common started the 2013-14 season 2-1. The second win came over Highland, one of Altergott’s prior posts, and put him at 399. But the Eagles lost their next three games.
Finally, at 2-4, Liberty Common returned to Fort Collins for its first home game of the season. The Eagles led 32-23 at halftime, and 46-36 after three quarters. Andrew Jones had 17 points, Arjun Gill had 14, and Josh VanVleet added 13. It was time for cake and posters.
“It was just another game, I guess,” Altergott said. “I just kind of approached it as the next game on the schedule, and when it was over, everyone else was probably more excited than I was about it.
“The kids also knew how close I was,” he added. “I never said anything to them about it, but I guess other people must have said something to them. They played really well in that last game.”
Altergott had been tracking his career record since he started.
“I used to have it written out from the time I started, year-by-year,” he said, “but through the different moves over the year, I lost the paper it was on. I have a cumulative total from resumes, so that’s how I knew where we were at.”
The bulk of the wins came at Roosevelt, where he spent 25 seasons as coach. He also spent seven at Highland. Now in his first year at Liberty Common, Altergott has been a head coach for 36 seasons.
Asked if he’s taken a moment to reflect on his career, Altergott said, “I haven’t yet. It’s the next practice. I haven’t thought about going backwards and looking at that. Someone did ask me about my very first win, and that was too long ago. I don’t remember that one.”