EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Americas boys basketball coach Mike Brooks hit a major milestone on Wednesday night, winning his 500th career game with a 41-34 victory over Pebble Hills.
Brooks’ team, family and friends were all on hand to celebrate with him. Brooks has been a head coach for 24 years, all of them at Americas, after 15 years as an assistant coach under Tony Harper at El Paso High and Montwood.
He led the Trail Blazers to a pair of Sweet 16 appearances in 2021 and 2022 and after that, he thought about retiring, but he chose to continue coaching in the pursuit of 500 wins.
“Mom got wind of how many wins we had, my son got wind of how many wins we had and they said, ‘you owe it to the career to try to achieve that,'” Brooks said. “The kids have bought into what we want and we’ve had some success. It’s been fun.”
Brooks moved to El Paso in the 1980s to play baseball at UTEP and after his playing days ended, he became one of the greatest basketball coaches in El Paso high school hoops history.
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