Consistency, developing winning culture have helped lead Wildwood Catholic coach to brink of major milestone

Posted: December 19th 2025

Steve DiPatri directs the girls basketball team at Wildwood Catholic Academy during a game two seasons ago.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Steve DiPatri entered last season needing 25 victories to reach 600 for his career as a girls basketball coach.

“It would be great to get it this year,” DiPatri said just prior to the start of the season, “because that would mean we would’ve had a pretty special season.”

Ultimately, DiPatri and his Wildwood Catholic Academy girls basketball team fell two wins short in reaching the milestone, but a 23-6 finish and a berth in the Cape-Atlantic League playoff tournament semifinal round exemplified exactly what usually occurs with DiPatri’s teams – quite simply, they win.

DiPatri, in his 13th season at Wildwood Catholic and his 29th overall, enters Sunday’s game against Atlantic County Institute of Technology in the Ocean City PBA Tipoff Weekend showcase event at Ocean City High School just one victory shy of yet another magic number on his already impressive resume.

DiPatri began his head coaching career at Sacred Heart High School, leading the Lions to three South Jersey titles, two state championships and a number of division, conference and overall Cape-Atlantic League titles in his tenure there. Most remarkably, DiPatri’s teams posted 352 wins against just 89 losses in his 16 seasons at Sacred Heart.

When the Vineland school closed due to declining enrollment, DiPatri landed at Wildwood Catholic and didn’t miss a beat. The Crusaders have won numerous CAL titles under his watch, reached two South Jersey title games and have compiled 247 wins against only 70 losses under DiPatri through Thursday’s win over Absegami in the team’s season opener. Wildwood Catholic has won at least 22 games in a season in six of the past seven seasons, the lone exception being in 2020-21 when the team went 9-1 against a truncated schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic.

STEVE DIPATRI

DiPatri is far and away the all-time wins leader among CAL girls basketball coaches. He broke the record of 433 set by Wildwood’s Dave Troiano nearly a decade ago, although Troiano went on to win 249 more games after Wildwood left the CAL for the Tri-County Conference.

One more victory would make DiPatri one of just 17 high school girls basketball coaches in the state to win 600 career games. He’d be just the fifth from a South Jersey school.

“Obviously I’ve known Steve for quite a long time, back when Wildwood was in the Cape-Atlantic League and he was at Sacred Heart,” Troiano said. “Getting to know him over the years and every time you talk to him about basketball, it’s obvious he’s extremely dedicated to what he does and his record over the years certainly speaks for itself. I’m happy for him.”

Earlier this year, DiPatri was presented with the John Wooden Legacy Award, a recognition that honors scholastic basketball coaches around the country who are educators and have achieved excellence on the court, in the classroom and in the community. He was also inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017.

More than the wins, the championships and the individual accolades, DiPatri has brought consistency, work ethic and a winning culture into the two programs he’s coached.  He’s had numerous players go on to play in college, including a handful currently competing at the Division II and III levels. Some have also gone into coaching.

“I try not to think about personal goals because my focus needs to be on trying to get our team better every day,” DiPatri said just prior to the start of this season. “The one thing I’m most proud of is when I watch my players play in college and all the ones working and living successfully as adults. I’ve done the job for 29 years now, and I like to think we’ve been consistent. I’ve built a lot of the great relationships I have through coaching basketball. We’ve built a culture at Wildwood Catholic and we did that at Sacred Heart and we’re going to try to do that every single day moving forward.”