Callero Nearly At Home As Auburn Coach -- Enumclaw Alum Takes Charge Of Boys Basketball

Tony Callero grew up watching Auburn High School cultivate its rich boys basketball tradition.

Now, he hopes to help build on it.

Callero, 30, who was part of another successful tradition as a player at nearby Enumclaw High School in the late 1980s, is the new boys basketball coach at Auburn. He replaces Dave Denny, who retired after seven seasons.

For Callero, a 1988 Enumclaw graduate who has been head coach at Kelso High School the past two seasons, it's close to coming home again.

"It's a gym I've been in a lot," he said. "I saw a lot of great basketball games there. They were always one of the most powerful teams when I was most impressionable, in junior high and high school. It's a school my friends and family quickly recognize."

Just as the Callero name is quickly recognized in Enumclaw and surrounding communities. Tony is one of 16 Callero children, the eighth of 10 boys. He played two years at Green River Community College and one at Central Washington University before jumping into coaching as an assistant at Ellensburg High School while student teaching there. Callero elected to coach a second year at Ellensburg in lieu of playing another season at Central.

"I figured I was having a bigger effect on the game as a coach instead of a 12th man as a player," he said.

Coaching runs in the family. Older brother Joe coached at Highline Community College while Tony played at Green River. Joe was an assistant coach at Southern California last season and recently accepted the head coaching job at the University of Puget Sound.

Many Callero family members live in the Auburn area, which Tony said was one of the biggest perks after residing in Southwestern Washington the past two years and in Dayton the three before that.

"The best thing I can say about the situation is that if everything else failed, and I was run out of coaching, I would still teach in Auburn," he said. "I have seven brothers and sisters living within a half-hour of there. I'm surrounded by family. Of course, it's pretty easy to be surrounded by family when it's as big as mine."

Callero and his wife, Nikki, have two sons - Joshua, 3, and Maxwell, 1. One of his nephews, Tony Binetti, is a freshman at Enumclaw and suited up with the varsity when it played in the Class 4A state tournament last season.

Tim Cummings, Auburn School District athletic director and a former Auburn basketball coach, said Callero's family background is a plus.

"He lives, eats and breathes the game," Cummings said. "He grew up with it, and coming from a competitive family has its merits, too."

Bob Jones, the Auburn High AD, likes the family ties, too.

"We were looking for someone who could make a long-term commitment to the program," Jones said. "He was of interest to us because of his Enumclaw background. We've known the name for a long time. We were looking for someone who would be here for a while."

Coaching stability has been a plus at Auburn. Denny coached the Trojans for seven years, with a 103-68 record. Cummings was head coach for 15 seasons, with a 240-95 record.

"Obviously, we have high expectations in our basketball program," Jones said. "He (Callero) is going to jump into the fire. . . . He's pretty aware of the tradition and expectations. Being an Enumclaw graduate, he's aware of the SPSL. I think he's going to be a pretty good fit."

Callero experienced the ultimate success as an assistant at Dayton, which won the Class B state title in 1995. He took over as head coach the following year, when Dayton jumped to Class A, then took the leap to 4A Kelso, a struggling program, two seasons ago. The Highlanders went 5-16 Callero's first year and 2-18 this season.

"It wasn't real impressive win-loss-wise," Callero said, "but we were able to get some things done."

Gary Kinch, Kelso athletic director, believes Callero can be successful at Auburn.

"He's real energetic and enthusiastic," Kinch said. "Basketball's his life. He gets along well with kids and he loves the game. He's from up there and I really think he sees this as a chance to locate closer to his family and still be associated with coaching and basketball at this (4A) level. We wish him the best of luck and thank him for the contributions he made here."

Cummings likes Callero's combination of youth and confidence.

"Tony brings some youth and with youth you get that incredible enthusiasm and energy, and that's good," Cummings said. "And he's got a really good vision of what it takes to be successful. He sees a very clear path he wants to follow and he'll reap rewards from that.

"When you have a clear definition of where you want to go, you're able to sell that to kids because they see you believe in it, and that's Tony. He genuinely believes what he's doing is going to create success, so he's definitely going to stay on course, and that's a rarity in today's coaches."