Whatever the level, Conte Stamas is a proven winner. His “shoot for the stars” philosophy has produced successful results at the high school, community college and NCAA levels.
Follow Stamas’ career pattern and immediate improvement is a theme repeated time and time again. Stamas’ first head coaching job was at Morton College back in 1985. The program was coming off a morbid 4-28 record and experienced just one winning season in the previous 28 years. The Panthers were 12-19 in Stamas’ first year and then 17-16 the next, a 13-game improvement in the win column over two years. It was the program’s 15th conference championship in men’s basketball, the most of any sport offered at Morton College.
Morton College was fortunate to rehire Stamas as its head men’s basketball coach for a second time in 2011 and it took him just two years to put the Panthers back on top of the Illinois Skyway Conference.
Stamas’ return to Morton College was much like his first go-around. He was hired long after players made their college selections as the Panthers ended up 13-18. The season highlights were a victory on two-time defending NJCAA Division II champion Lincoln’s home floor and a thrilling regular-season ending OT home win over Prairie State.
Year two brought another dramatic change for the better for the Panthers, who won 23 games before losing to eventual D-II runner-up Moraine Valley in the Region IV title game. Morton College’s 10-game improvement in the victory ledger was the third-best in program history.
The Panthers also beat Kankakee for the first time since the 1973-74 season and pinned the first loss on previously undefeated Kishwaukee, which rode into Morton College with a 12-0 record and a No. 8 national ranking. Also, Morton College’s 18-point win over Moraine Valley to open the league play served as the springboard for the Panthers improving five wins to 12 in conference play to earn a three-way share of the Illinois Skyway title with the Cyclones and Waubonsee.
In Stamas' third year, he was named the 2013-2014 Illinois Skyway Conference's Male Coach of the Year for leading the Panthers to their fourth conference title in the last five years. Morton College finished 18-14 overall and 9-5 in the Skyway.
The 2014-15 season produced a number of milestone victories. The Panthers won their 1,100th game in program history with a 71-68 decision over South Suburban Nov. 20, 2014. Morton College also defeated Kishwaukee 86-85 Dec. 17, 2014, when the Kougars were ranked No. 2 in the country. Stamas also collected his 100th career win as Morton College's coach when the Panthers topped Illinois Valley 84-59 Feb. 26, 2015.
Morton College was one of five Division II men's basketball programs to have an All-American (Nick Dixon) and an Academic Student-Athlete Award winner (Brian McNamara). Dixon, a two-time All-American who is at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, called his decision to play at Morton College for Stamas, "a life-changer." Stamas also has coached four of 15 Morton College players who went on to the NCAA Division I level in Chris Palermo (St. Francis of New York), Jimmy Stamas (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Michael Johnson (Chicago State) and Dixon, who left as the program's second-leading all-time scorer.
In addition to being the architect of the two biggest turnarounds in Morton College history, Stamas also has coached three of the Panthers’ most prolific single-season scorers in Palermo (839 points in 1985-86), Dixon (805 points in 2013-14) and Demarius Miller (727 points in 2011-12). Morton College teams also have been nationally-ranked in team defense and free-throw percentage during Stamas’ tenure.
“From a team standpoint, it’s important to develop players to go on to four-year schools academically and athletically,” Stamas said. “You want them to have success and use Morton College as a springboard to a four-year school. I’ve been at a lot of different levels and I want to share with our players some of the things I’ve experienced to help make them better people and players.”
After leaving Morton College the first time, Stamas spent a year at Thornton (now South Suburban) College. He moved up to the NCAA Division I ranks, working two years with Dr. Glenn Wilkes at Stetson and another five years with current CBS Sports Network basketball analyst Pete Gillen at Xavier. During Stamas’ time at Xavier, the Musketeers were 94-21 from 1989 to 1994 and his name often was mentioned when an NCAA Division I head coaching position opened up.
Xavier reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history during the 1989-90 season by beating a Georgetown team with Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. The Musketeers reached the NCAA Tournament two other times when Stamas was at Xavier – 1991 (losing to No. 1 seed Indiana) and 1993.
Stamas returned to the high school ranks, going 92-44 in five years at Evanston with three conference and four regional titles. He moved on to Lyons Township, posting a 156-90 mark in nine seasons with a fourth-place finish at state in 2001.
The Lions suffered a one-point loss in the Class AA semifinals to Schaumburg, which eventually won the state title by knocking off a Thornwood squad with future Chicago Bull Eddy Curry. The Lions were the only team to limit Schaumburg from shooting over 50 percent in the round of Sweet 16. That LT squad also bettered itself from nine wins in Stamas’ first season to 28, a school record at LT.
Stamas’ 156 wins at LT are the second-most in school history, only trailing the legendary Ron Nikcevich, who won 462 games from 1969 to 1994. Stamas still uses Nikcevich’s 1-3-1 zone defensive principles.
Stamas, a physical-education instructor at Lyons Township High School, has served on the staff at the Ray Meyer, Indiana and Notre Dame summer basketball camps. The Berwyn native, a member of the National Hellenic Invitational Basketball Tournament’s Hall of Fame, is a product of the Morton system, graduating from Morton West High School and Morton College. Stamas and Kirk Hoover are the only two Morton College alumni to return as head men’s basketball coaches.
