Don Williams of Carmichaels High School in Greene County recently won his 400th game as a head coach. At about the same time, Doug Biega of Beaver Falls collected win No. 200.

Last month, Ron Faust of Washington High School got his 500th victory.

Biega laughed when asked if he thought he'd been on the bench long enough to win 500 or even 400 games.

"It's a battle of attrition," he said.

While there are several WPIAL boys' basketball coaches closing in on 500 wins -- Serra Catholic's Bob Rozanski had 485 heading into this week, Mount Pleasant's Tom Traynor 469, Center's Mark Jula had 449 and Monessen's Joe Salvino had 431 -- one has to wonder if the 500 club will become a more exclusive group after that generation of coaches -- Salvino is in his 24th season, Rozanski his 31st, Jula is in his 30th -- retires.

It seems as if coaches don't stay with the profession as long as they used to. California High School's Phil Pergola is in his 38th season as a head coach, Williams is in his 34th and Chuck Crummie at Central Catholic, Bill Sacco at Cornell and Paul Sapotichne at Greensburg Salem are in their 29th.

"If things continue the way they are with school boards, parental interference and the pressure to win, then getting 200 or 300 wins will be a lot [for a coach], let alone [getting them] at one school," said Crummie, who has more than 500 victories, all at Central Catholic.

"You just don't see guys staying in coaching much beyond 15 years these days," said Pergola, who coached at Ringgold before "retiring," then returning to coaching.

One factor is the money. When Pergola started teaching, a coaching salary was a welcome addition to his income as a teacher.

"Teaching salaries have increased quite a bit since then, but the coaching salaries have remained just about the same," he said. "You'd get $750 for coaching, which was nice. Now, you might get $1,500, but you're teaching salary is good enough that what you get coaching isn't needed that much for the amount of time you put in."

There are also more avenues available for someone who wants to coach and teach teenagers the game of basketball. Twenty years ago, landing a job as a high school coach was the only way to do that. Now, an individual can get a job with an AAU team.

"When I first started, I knew I wanted to be a head coach," said Chartiers Valley's Tim McConnell, who got into coaching as an assistant at Waynesburg College. "I always thought I'd go back to college, but I'm really happy to be where I'm at."

McConnell is in his 16th season at Chartiers Valley and has 350 victories.

By the way, former North Catholic coach Don Graham has the WPIAL record for coaching victories. In 51 years on Troy Hill, he compiled 801 victories. Legendary Ed McCluskey collected 698 wins, with almost all coming at Farrell, and L. Butler Hennon compiled 620 wins in 35 years at first Wampum and Ellwood City high schools.

In the world of high school athletics, there are any number of individuals who go unnoticed but contribute to the coverage of events. The late Dave Miller was one of those people.

Miller, a graduate of Peabody High School and a Ford City native, died Nov. 5. His day job was that of a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in East Liberty, but in the evening and on weekends he would work as a statistician for Pitt and for a wire service.

He covered a number of WPIAL basketball tournament games in the late 1970s and early '80s when only section champions qualified for the playoffs and almost all of the tournament games were at the then Civic Arena.

Coaches knew who Miller was because he was a fixture at press row for WPIAL games at the Arena and his insightful questions. He was also a stickler about correcting anyone who said a WPIAL team had a good chance of winning a state championship. "You mean a PIAA championship," he would say, pointing out that high schools in Philadelphia were not PIAA members at that time. "Last time I checked, Philadelphia is still in the state."

Miller worked for Pitt compiling football statistics and basketball box scores. He did that for all of Beano Cook's 10 years as sports information director at Pitt. Miller, 83, is survived by his wife Suzanne.

There are several important boys' games tomorrow night and Tuesday that could cause a shuffle in the Post-Gazette rankings.

Included in the trio of goodies tomorrow evening are Mt. Lebanon (10-2, 4-0) at No. 4-ranked Peters Township (9-1, 3-0) in Class AAAA Section 4, No. 1 Chartiers Valley (10-0, 2-0) at Moon Area (8-4, 5-0) in Class AAA Section 4 and No. 4 Greensburg Central Catholic (8-3, 4-0) at Shady Side Academy (6-5, 3-1) in Class AA Section 4.

The biggie Tuesday has No. 1 Upper St. Clair (10-2, 3-1) at rival Mt. Lebanon in Class AAAA Section 4. Two other contests worth watching that night have No. 5 Jeannette (8-3, 4-0) at No. 4. Greensburg Central Catholic in Class AA Section 4 and No. 1 Beaver Falls (9-2, 4-0) at rival Aliquippa (6-4, 3-1) in Class AA Section 6.